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How long is everyone holding their planks for?


DoogieT

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I've recently realized (thanks to everyone here) that the ab crunch machine sucks and planks are much better. I can hold mine for two mintues, but I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions about how long to hold it for. It only starts to burn after about 30 seconds. Should I be doing sets of this as well? (I did the p90x ab ripper routine for a while but it doesn't have planks).

D

Shoryuken!

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Hey Doogie. Good question. You can do them in sets. I usually do them in a set of three of plank left side and right side. Hold it as long as you can and then next time go longer. I think I'm up to about 1:50 or so these days.

Loren Wade did a 10min plank back in the day.

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Sets of 45-90 seconds is good, dependant on what your core is like.

You can mix it up, plank for 90 seconds on your front, then left and right sides. rinse and repeat for 3 rounds through.

"Strength is the cup. The bigger the cup, the more you can put in" - JDanger

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Before I got with my trainer I was doing planks as my exclusive for of abdominal exercise. Id get 4:30 by starting with regular planks on my elbows and every 30 seconds I would transfer to a side plank. three sets in a row added up to 4:30.

But now she has me doing 60 second planks, followed by 20 reverse curls (lie flat on back with knees bent and feet up off floor, and crunch legs into chest) followed by 20 side plank pushups (get into side plank position and drop hip to floor, then raise it back into sideplank position. then drop hip to floor). As well as a few exercises that also engage the core to stabilize. It's killer, but she's really been coming through for me so I give her the benefit of the doubt.

And I like the reverse curls, because it REALLYhits the abs, but is also a nice little stratch for the lower back. And it keeps everything nice and straight, theres no horrible curling motion.

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I hold them for 45 seconds as a warmup, but I don't particularly like doing planks for a long time and prefer to do harder exercises.

Primarily L-sits and dragon flags for my abs. Dragon flags are the only one I take to the limits though, I try to keep my abs away from failure since I need them strong for practically everything I do.

You should give a hanging L-sit a try when you are working on chins. Its good for the grip and a very good ab exercise; if you can hold a 2 minute plank you should be able to get your legs up into an L-sit and hold it a bit.

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Why not do the revolving plank of doom?

Right side plank

Plank

Left Side Plank

Reverse Plank

Hold each one for 30 seconds, and do the circle as many times as you can.

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Reverse plank?

0502_rev_plank_leg.jpg

Also known as a straight bridge. It is an overall very good exercise, one of the better BW posterior chain exercises, especially when doing the 1 leg variant (in other words, a good exercise if you want a fine hiney). It is also shoulder support in a ROM rarely used otherwise (don't let em slump, squeeze the shoulder blades together). Good for bicep tendon/elbow conditioning as well. On my short list of exercises that everybody should regularly do.

currently cutting

battle log challenges: 21,20, 19,18,17,16,15,14,13,12,11,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1

don't panic!

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Goddamn, Nerd Fitness rules. I will take Spezzi's advice and try the rotating plank of doom. I even love the name. It reminds me of Akira's Stun Palm of Doom (SPoD) from Virtua Fighter 2 (PKG; B,DF+PK, F (or B)+ K.) I used to spend hours upon hours practicing it.

Also that Indiana Jones movie, but not as much. :P

Shoryuken!

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Why not do the revolving plank of doom?

I'm going to regret this but you're on.

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At my kickboxing club, for one of our sessions in particular, we used to end with a pretty tough core circuit. The general rule we used was that your plank was your rest, not because planking is easy but just compared to everything else it was a nice little break. Been a bit too latent for a couple of weeks trying to get a few of things sorted out so I'm not sure what I'd manage now but I know when I was training regularly I could hold a 5 minute plank without really trying, I think I may have been able to manage a 10 minute one if I'd have had something to keep me amused whilst doing it

 

 

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Looks like the RPoD is getting a lot of love, but I'll throw in the plank "tabata." 20 seconds front plank, 10 seconds left side, 20 seconds front, 20 seconds right side, repeat x4.

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My current body weight routine has planks as the 4th and 8th exercise, and right now I'm holding them for 45-60 sec each time they come up. I do the circuit 3 times, so overall I get in 4.5 min to 6 min of plank per workout.

I'm intrigued by the RPoD though. I think I might have to try this and see if I die. :-)

~Chris

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Oooh! Now I have a name for what I keep trying to get my Boything to do - he thinks plank is dumb, so I started him doing what now shall be known as The Revolving Plank of Doom (which is what I'd been trying to convince him is actually pretty decent exercise, despite the fact you're "not doing anything.").

Thanks! YAY!

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My current workout doesn't have anything that focuses on the backside, I'm going to be adding in high rep high weight kettle-bell swings but this will be a nice stepping stone to help me prepare. I'm in.

"Oh, fear not in a world like this, And thou shalt know erelong, Know how sublime a thing it is, To suffer and be strong."  - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -

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Why not do the revolving plank of doom?

Right side plank

Plank

Left Side Plank

Reverse Plank

Hold each one for 30 seconds, and do the circle as many times as you can.

Other than the fact I didn't know what a reverse plank was, this is what I did last night! Now I can add that to my plank routine ;)

Even pushing through three sets of the first three was hard enough, so this will get interesting...

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I tried 3 sets of the revolving plank of doom, 30 seconds each. I shake quite a lot, especially on the right side plank and on a whole, I feel like my arms are the ones who fail first. Not sure if it's because my shape is bad (probably) or if I'm just too weak (probably too)

Anyway, it's a fun thing to work on!

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That's ok. My shoulders give out from time to time when I do my side plank pushups. If you just brush it off and get back up you'll find yourself doing it less and less until, one day, you nail it every time. I know you got this :)

"Oh, fear not in a world like this, And thou shalt know erelong, Know how sublime a thing it is, To suffer and be strong."  - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -

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