All Smiles and Silly Conversations

Lying on the floor, place your forearms forward so that your elbows are directly under your shoulders

Slowly lift your torso off the floor by pressing into your forearms and knees. Contract your core as you raise up, and maintain a neutral neck and spine. (knee plank)

^Tuck your toes under and lift your knees so that your body forms a straight line. Tighten your abs and squeeze your glutes. (bridge plank)

^Straighten one arm at a time, placing your hands where your elbows were directly under your shoulders, lifting yourself up (ramp plank)

Hold this position for the desired duration*

On completion, lower your hips back to the floor and rest.

*when you feel yourself nearing your falter point, slowly transition back to rest. honestly planks feel worse if you're doing it wrong, so maintain the posture:

Neck. Keep your chin tucked in and your neck long. Your neck should be in line with the rest of your body. Do not tilt your head up, as this strains the neck. Gaze down towards the floor to help keep your neck in a neutral position.

Shoulders. Keep your shoulders down, not hunched up to your ears. Try to keep your neck, shoulders, and jaw relaxed.

Abs. Engage your core – think of drawing your navel in to your spine.

Hips. Do not lift or lower your hips – keep your body straight and level. Your shoulders, hips, knees and feet should form a straight line at all times. Tightening your abs, quads, and glutes helps to keep your body straight. Arching the back or hiking the hips up shifts the weight onto your arms, moves the work away from the core, and stresses the shoulders.

Feet. Start with your feet about hip-width apart. Moving your feet closer together makes the exercise more challenging, while moving your feet further apart provides greater balance and stability making the plank easier.

Breath. Breathe steadily throughout the exercise. It’s a common mistake to hold your breath during the exercise, which can elevate blood pressure.

a horrible truth is that apparently this does get easier the more you build up the muscles. and when you waver, think living thoughts. remember why you want to do this: starting with one every morning has been good for my body awareness/grounding. also it was like the one exercise repeated across so many sites to treat like all back problems, so we need to say Fuck You to school gym memories for the sake of my latest diagnoses.