Saw this article on Facebook. Although it's a typically naff Runners World piece, I would tend to agree that planking for too long can be hard on the lower back, and I like the suggestion that holding a good quality plank for shorter amounts of time can give you good results.
"you can plank daily, but the length of time you should hold a plank for can vary from 10 seconds to a minute. Here’s why: Your form matters most."
“Forcing yourself to hold a plank for an excessive amount of time can put a lot of strain on your lower back,”
"Plank when you can and do it as long as you can hold good form, for up to a minute. You should see great results."
I did a plank challenge last year where the length of time never went over one munte but the difficulty increased, so by the end I was balancing on one leg and the opposite arm.
I combine my planks with upper body workout simply by doing pushups at the moment. Once I can do 100 straight up I will move onto pull-ups.
Typically, I can't find the actual plan now. Though I doubt I could do it again now. It was after about four weeks of building up, and it was not fun!!
Yes, not surprised about the lower back. I prefer press ups. 10 used to be my max but now up to 50 by adding 1 every couple of days. I think adding some movement helps my back too.
How does the length of time you take to do the 50 compare with the planking times? I never thought to time myself. Mind you I am only up to 16 press ups so far - I don't think that takes very long 😊
1 minute. If I went slower I would not manage 50! 😀. So in line with the plank times. I wonder if just doing them for 1 min regardless of rep count makes much difference. I.e 20 in 1 min or 50 in 1 min may give similar benefits?
20 of good quality would be better than 50 of poor quality. If you are doing your quicker ones with good form then I'd say 50 would be more beneficial. But I'm not sure about doing different numbers in the same amount of time - do you mean take them more slowly, or take rests? I suppose it is harder to do a slow pushup than a quick one, which suggests a better workout.
But also there are different types of push up. If I'm doing push ups with my elbows out to the side, and switch to doing "tricep" push ups with the elbows pointing backwards, it is harder (for most people anyway!) so I'd manage fewer.
Anyway, I'm not sure that length of time is so relevant for push ups! Planks are measured by keeping still for an amount of time, and push ups are measured by repetitions. My question really was: I wonder if you are putting strain on your lower back for a similar amount of time when you are doing push ups, compared with when you are doing planks?
You are keeping your back straight for the same amount of time be it a push-up or plank. Also there are many static variations of plank and dynamic variations which all work different muscles and your core. I guess they are all helpful for the core as long as the time is kept fairly short.
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