Is the Single Arm Plank Supposed to be Less Torturous Than the Plank!?

The plank is by far the most painful movement for me yet. Today I started with the Single Arm Plank and I was expecting more pain than the Plank, but I was surprised because it was only discomfort that I felt. Nothing like the 9/10 pain of the Plank.

Am I doing it wrong or does it activate different muscles? What's your experience?

-Nash

Make doubly sure your hips and shoulders are straight for one arm plank easy to twist and cheat it!

Ha, I had the opposite experience. The planks felt so intense as I worked to mastery that I was convinced all that hard work would make the single arm variant at least slightly more comfortable, especially with the shorter times. Nope. Less hold-time torture, but higher intensity. Listen to Jon for sure. I feel much more tension in the core trying to prevent twisting here.

Hmmm. I caught myself twisting in the mirror then corrected after the first set.

Definitely more tension in the core, but no pain in the scapula like Planks.

I'll post a video later to make sure I'm doing this right.

Thank you for the input.

Yeah, these are complicated for sure.

Apart from making sure your hips and shoulders are level (both with themselves and with eachother) you also need to make sure you're not bending at the hips, maintaining glute tension and also protracting fully at the shoulder.  It's easy to lose protraction, because you're only protracting at one shoulder at a time.

If you're doing it right, you should feel a deep burn in your serratus and your oblique under the working arm.  Or at least, I do....

For me the initial weeks felt like nothing, but 4x18 was the threshold where things started to feel difficult. For me it's when you start feeling that soreness on your supporting arm's side, not unlike that a side stitch pain from running, due to maintaining the position and not twisting.

10r Straddle Donkey kicks as rest where the hardest part for me, for some reason.

The iM, with my big legs, were the worst part. And now I'm rehabing a wrist issue that I've got with planche leans and I'm revisiting sPL/PE4 and reviving the efforts with the iM.

The PE start to be interesting (and harder) when the volume goes up

Adriano Augusto said:

The iM, with my big legs, were the worst part. And now I'm rehabing a wrist issue that I've got with planche leans and I'm revisiting sPL/PE3 and reviving the efforts with the iM.

 

The PE start to be interesting (and harder) when the volume goes up

I am starting to get some tearing in my wrists from planche leans, I think wrists are really the weak spot in this move for most people.. good to know Im not the only one

@ Nash

 When I started this program I mastered the plank and went on to single arm, was not too easy for me because I did not pay attention to the scapula protraction of the plank like I do now, that said If you have a really good plank this element should not be as hard as the plank. And once you get to planche lean you will be happier if you have a good plank. 

The IM's are not easy to keep the legs inline with your glutes. My natural tendency is to raise my legs above my glutes which is wrong. Not easy at all especially with the tempo in the video. This will probably be with extended weeks 9-12 a couple times to get right. A spotter would be great for this 1 to tell you what your doing wrong.

You know, part of the reason these felt so intense to me was because an apparent typo in the program had me doing 10 reps per leg on the iM. At the end of all the sets and mobility I would feel dizzy with the exertion sometimes. Now that the rep count has been cleared up on another thread I guess I'll be feeling a little less pain after all. But I still plan on doing 10 reps in future warmups just because I know I can.

Bipocni said:

 It's easy to lose protraction, because you're only protracting at one shoulder at a time.

 

Actually I find it easier to maintain good form if I protract both shoulders at once, even if I'm working one arm at a time.

Hello all,

Thank you for the tips. I did my best to incorporate them all and ended up with the video below.

There's some instability because I'm still learning the movement.

It feels like there's a lot of pressure and heaviness on my wrist and on my shoulder because I'm twisting into them in order to maintain straight shoulders and hips.

Glutes tight and full PPT.

The strange thing though, which is making me doubt my form, is that there's no burn at all (like in Planks). Just heaviness like say when you're pressing a barbell.