Sculpting Your Workouts to Tone Your Body

2010 – Advanced Planks

Posted by on Mar 20th, 2010 | no comments home title

Just like the other plank variations these are used to teach your body to prevent rotation, flexion and extension of the lower back. It is imperative that you keep your core engaged. Your primary focus is preventing any lower back movement. Remember we are trying to keep the natural posture of the spine. The plank-up exercise is very easy to cheat through. When you press up you cannot let your hips tilt side to side. You also want to make sure you alternate which hand you press up with first. Using balance disks is an advanced version, use regular pads under your elbows when you are beginning this exercise until you master it. Push-up catch is a anti rotation exercise which brings in a few more variables you have to think about and control. It also requires a decent amount of upper body strength. Start in a push-up position and throw the ball from one hand to the other. Just like plank-ups you need to keep your hips level. Roll-outs are a great exercise to learn how to control your core and prevent lower back extension. This version on your knees using a exercise ball is the easiest. When performing this exercise imagine there is a steel bar running from your head to your knees, no bending at the waste or lower back is allowed, even when you are returning to the start position.