Strengthen Your Core With a Forearm Plank

Quick Win

A forearm plank works the muscles that stabilize your spine and helps to improve posture. Both are important for movements you do every day.

Try This Today

1. Lie face down on a mat or towel and set your forearms flat on the ground, like the iconic sphinx statue of Egypt.
2. With your feet hip-width apart, push down on your hands and forearms, tighten your abdominal muscles and lift your body off the floor into a plank position. Keep your spine straight, navel pulled in and tailbone tucked while you press your toes into the floor and squeeze your glutes.
3. Hold for 20 seconds. Don’t let your head and neck collapse and keep your shoulders away from your ears. If a full plank is too much, modify the pose by positioning yourself holding the position on your knees rather than your toes.

Why 

A strong core is important for getting out of a chair, lifting a grocery bag and going up stairs—and for reducing your risk of falling. Core-strengthening activities helped posture and balance more than standard strengthening exercises in a study of 20 people in their 70s, reported in 2015 in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science. A plank works your core, from your lower abdomen to your upper abs and the internal and external obliques — the muscles that move your body from side to side. In 13 adults average age 52 with low back pain, planks were well tolerated and improved muscles in the abdominal area, in a study reported in 2019 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.