plank help beginner

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tobehappy2017
tobehappy2017 Posts: 41 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Please post link or dumb it down for me in simple terms:having trouble with positioning of arms/hands(i watched a couple of videos that says "stack",but i don't get it) and distribution of weight in palm.Tried, but end up with pain in shoulder or wrists.Pilates is also challenging due to this.I carry most weight in mid-section.(Female 34 years)
Want to do them to strengthen my core in addition to the cardio and walking,eating calorie deficit.(weight lifting/going to gym is not an option).

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  • jennybearlv
    jennybearlv Posts: 1,519 Member
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    In my opinion the hardest part of the plank is wrist strain. I find it helps to spread my fingers out and think about distributing my weight all over my hand. I remember when I first started yoga and couldn't hold plank or downward dog for very long because it hurt my wrists and shoulders. After practicing every day it slowly got better and barely bothers me at all now. If it's really terrible there are other core exercises you can do like situps, crunches, and sidebends. Add some weight on there and I think they are better than plank.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
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    'stack' means the actual joint part of your joints are directly on top of each other. so your shoulder joints are directly over your elbow or wrist joints.

    that lets your bones take most of the strain, and your muscles just have to do the minimal work of keeping things in that position. preventing wobble, basically. i assume that for planking, the take-away is you want your core muscles to be doing most of the work, and in the meanwhile the stacked position is healthier for your joints.
  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,126 Member
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    How are you doing planks that it hurts your wrists? Your elbows/forearms should be taking the weight, not your wrists.
  • tobehappy2017
    tobehappy2017 Posts: 41 Member
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    canadianlbs wrote: »
    'stack' means the actual joint part of your joints are directly on top of each other. so your shoulder joints are directly over your elbow or wrist joints.

    that lets your bones take most of the strain, and your muscles just have to do the minimal work of keeping things in that position. preventing wobble, basically. i assume that for planking, the take-away is you want your core muscles to be doing most of the work, and in the meanwhile the stacked position is healthier for your joints.

    Thank you,i am trying to correct my form by looking into mirror,this helps to understand.
  • tobehappy2017
    tobehappy2017 Posts: 41 Member
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    jennybearlv wrote: »
    In my opinion the hardest part of the plank is wrist strain. I find it helps to spread my fingers out and think about distributing my weight all over my hand. I remember when I first started yoga and couldn't hold plank or downward dog for very long because it hurt my wrists and shoulders. After practicing every day it slowly got better and barely bothers me at all now. If it's really terrible there are other core exercises you can do like situps, crunches, and sidebends. Add some weight on there and I think they are better than plank.

    Thank you,for the other options.I am going to try it a few more times as explained by canadianlbs,else resort to other exercises.
  • tobehappy2017
    tobehappy2017 Posts: 41 Member
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    musicfan68 wrote: »
    How are you doing planks that it hurts your wrists? Your elbows/forearms should be taking the weight, not your wrists.

    It was difficult for me to understand the position of my arms/hands/wrists.
  • ICameToGetDown
    ICameToGetDown Posts: 958 Member
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    It may be easier to start out on your forearm to get the right form
  • SonyaCele
    SonyaCele Posts: 2,841 Member
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    musicfan68 wrote: »
    How are you doing planks that it hurts your wrists? Your elbows/forearms should be taking the weight, not your wrists.

    my wrists will hurt if i plank because of how my wrist has to bend , so i sometimes hold dumbbells instead of having my hands flat on the ground.
  • canadianlbs
    canadianlbs Posts: 5,199 Member
    edited July 2017
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    tobehappy2017 wrote: »
    Thank you,i am trying to correct my form by looking into mirror,this helps to understand.

    after a while you might come to find you can just tell whether or not you are stacked by the feel. there definitely is a different sensation to it, i find. i ask myself the question, if i relaxed the muscles around these joints, how much would my arm/whatever move? if the answer is 'quite a lot' then i'm not stacked. if it's 'really not much' then i'm pretty good. or i ask myself 'how is this weight travelling through my body to get to the ground'? you want the answer to be 'straight down my arm'. i do personally rely a lot on looking for that feeling of the force of the weight 'travelling', but you might be different.

    it takes a while depending on whether you're even used to listening to your body's sensations or not, so don't be discouraged if it doesn't come right away.

  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,126 Member
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    SonyaCele wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    How are you doing planks that it hurts your wrists? Your elbows/forearms should be taking the weight, not your wrists.

    my wrists will hurt if i plank because of how my wrist has to bend , so i sometimes hold dumbbells instead of having my hands flat on the ground.

    I still don't understand how you do planks. Why does your wrist have to bend? They should be in a relaxed position. I do them and I can freely rotate my hands/wrists as my weight is on my elbows/forearms like the guy in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiA9j-dR0oM
  • pennygm72
    pennygm72 Posts: 179 Member
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    You can also do a plank on your hands with straight arms, your wrists are bent and your hand flat on the floor @musicfan68. I do some of both personally.

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