Which Plank Position Is Harder/better ?

Hi !

Just read that the plank exercise is very good for core and for a stable body.

From which plank position i will benefit the most?

What type of planks do Gymnasts do ? ( Elbow plank, Hand plank, elevated plank, feet to wall plank, side plank) 

And if someone could give an advice on the sets and duration and how often that would be good

Gymnasts wouldn't spend really any time any planks while they could learn a L-sit or Front Lever/Body lever. The later excersizes are overall better for performance, definition and total body tension. Id learn better excersizes rather than spending time on planks. Just my 2 cents though.

Tavis G said:

Gymnasts wouldn't spend really any time any planks while they could learn a L-sit or Front Lever/Body lever. The later excersizes are overall better for performance, definition and total body tension. Id learn better excersizes rather than spending time on planks. Just my 2 cents though.

I'd take the opposite position here and say that planks, in several important variations, are very important for developing fundamental gymnastic strength. First things first and all

Tavis G said:

Gymnasts wouldn't spend really any time any planks while they could learn a L-sit or Front Lever/Body lever. The later excersizes are overall better for performance, definition and total body tension. Id learn better excersizes rather than spending time on planks. Just my 2 cents though.

Then why are planks in the Foundation series? By your logic one should simply train a planche since it's significantly harder.

Planks are a vital developmental exercise, not just for the core either.

But to answer the OP's question, I would recommend you take a look at Foundation 1.

Plank is mainly a protraction exercise. It has a little straight body element to it, but it is really beginner compared to basically anything.

So essentially elbow plank is totally useless. Now whether to elevate feet or not... I think it's better to shift your hands back (add some lean) instead of raising feet since it helps more towards planche, but to balance the use of shoulders I like to also do plank with totally vertical arms. I usually do this with feet on the wall as that adds some nice difficulty. That is mainly a part of my warm up while planche leans are more of an actual strength position.

Side planks are totally different exercise. I think I should be doing them but I just don't keep them so high a priority. It is something very easy to prepare you for side lever so it's mainly about where you are at.

Tavis G said:

... Gymnasts wouldn't spend really any time any planks ... Id learn better excersizes rather than spending time on planks. Just my 2 cents though ...

Both myself and Vitaly Scherbo, 6 time Olympic Gold Medalist, disagree with your opinion regarding the relative value of the plank variations.  In fact, when Vitaly was a young developmental gymnast, he would often train a combination of several plank positions for a combined time of ten minutes total.  Allan when he was young also used this same protocol.

The bottom line is that serious plank work is an essential component of GST.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

Both myself and Vitaly Scherbo, 6 time Olympic Gold Medalist, disagree with your opinion regarding the relative value of the plank variations.  In fact, when Vitaly was a young developmental gymnast, he would often train a combination of several plank positions for a combined time of ten minutes total.  Allan when he was young also used this same protocol.

 

The bottom line is that serious plank work is an essential component of GST.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

And that's coming from Coach. Can't argue with that.

Morandi in his warm up does about 6-7 minutes of work around elbow plank, support plank and side plank with various different exercises (single leg lift, single arm lift, hips work etc).

seriously when i attempted to his warm up routine with him i failed around 3 minutes..and was a warm up

I am speaking from experience with planks, I don't believe I should do planks while i can learn harder moves. But I alson don't believe planks are totally useless. Sure they have some merit to conditioning and endurance aspects, but I don't feel them as very effective, for me atleast. And besides the book and other specific excersizes, I'm only decently educated to excersizes such as bowers, erbs, HS presses etc. And I of course am not a competitive gymnasts by any means, so i wouldn't have a totally accurate answer to their specific excersizes, such as planks. I didn't think gymnasts spent too much time on them. It was just MY opinion. I just learned that gymnasts actually used planks and not as a warmup excersize. Getting smarter everyday!

Travis. You should include all types of planks in your workout until you have mastered them. They carry over tremendously to the later exercises including manna, planche, side lever, front lever, and back lever. They are the fundamental straight body moves. Trust me if you do not put in the time now it will come back to you at some point in the future. I have found this universally true for doing later exercises correctly. They are even more important if you compete because you pass through these positions and hold the same fundamental shape.

Just from looking at your picture next to the post I can tell you need more plank work. Your tuck planche form is off and you will find it very slow to progress if you do not correct it.

I do them every day to refine form.

My protracion is off, I know. Working on that at the moment.

Flameous said:

Plank is mainly a protraction exercise. It has a little straight body element to it, but it is really beginner compared to basically anything.

So essentially elbow plank is totally useless. Now whether to elevate feet or not... I think it's better to shift your hands back (add some lean) instead of raising feet since it helps more towards planche, but to balance the use of shoulders I like to also do plank with totally vertical arms. I usually do this with feet on the wall as that adds some nice difficulty. That is mainly a part of my warm up while planche leans are more of an actual strength position.

 

Side planks are totally different exercise. I think I should be doing them but I just don't keep them so high a priority. It is something very easy to prepare you for side lever so it's mainly about where you are at.

You're entitled to your opinions, of course, but I believe you are wrong.

Planks are about maintaining pelvic tilt.

Hollow planks are about doing so with protracted shoulders, but you should be performing both, and in any case it is much easier to mess up the pelvic tilt than it is to mess up the scapular position. We use the hollow position a lot here, so we focus more on these.

With the elbow plank, it is more difficult to screw up the scapular activation, which is why it is such a popular rehabilitative movement, and proper rehab is always the foundation of good strength training.

Fundamental movement patterns should always be a part of warm up, once they are no longer challenging enough for a real workout.

Beginner they may be, but everything in life hinges on the basics.

Im not a big fan of n elbow prone plank as I Am of a rear elbow blank

they are basics that need to be mastered correctly.

honestly while they suck in the beginning, they eventually aren't that hard

Blairbob said:

Im not a big fan of n elbow prone plank as I Am of a rear elbow blank

 

they are basics that need to be mastered correctly.

 

honestly while they suck in the beginning, they eventually aren't that hard

What do you guys mean by "mastering the plank" ?

Is it like being able to hold the :

Rear elbow plank

Elbow prone plank

Reverse plank

Hollow plank 

3 sets of 3  minutes each hold  ?

And did i miss any of the important planks on the list above ?

What do you guys think of the plank variation with one arm up and opposite leg up?

Anyways I think planks are a great beginner exercise for building abdominal strength and are better than crunches and sit-ups. You can also do weighted planks with elevated legs to make them more challenging, but I prefer to move onto more advanced exercises after planks become easy.

try placing your elbows in front of your shoulders, contracting your glutes and pulling your elbows and toes together.  I dunno if the tension can match a full lay front lever, but it's pretty challenging.

Bipocni said:

try placing your elbows in front of your shoulders, contracting your glutes and pulling your elbows and toes together.  I dunno if the tension can match a full lay front lever, but it's pretty challenging.

Full front lever is still MUCH harder and has more tension.

B1214N said:

What do you guys think of the plank variation with one arm up and opposite leg up?

 

Anyways I think planks are a great beginner exercise for building abdominal strength and are better than crunches and sit-ups. You can also do weighted planks with elevated legs to make them more challenging, but I prefer to move onto more advanced exercises after planks become easy.

I like the one arm, one leg stuff. Push ups there are excellent as well. They are good conditioning.

Last week I saw a good one (at least I liked the idea.... not that I could do it)  Starting from a plank with opposite arm/leg raised and with a buddy to tell the partner when they were in correct position the person did the "cat-dog-cow-moo-moo" movement (hunched-neutral-arched-neutral-side-neutral-side)   It was all about being able to return to that middle position.