If you’ve logged into Facebook at all over the past couple of months, then you will probably have heard about the funky new urban phenomenon known as ‘planking’. This strange and quirky activity has quickly spread across the western world, garnering surprising popularity.

According to a local online group set up to act as a hub for plankers and their creative photographic contributions, which by the way, has attracted over 6,000 followers to date, it involves simply lying face down with an expressionless face, legs together and toes pointed, with arms by the sides held straight with pointed fingers.

The aim is to capture yourself in this position, in the weirdest and wackiest locations you can think of.

Popular planking images depict the participant sprawled across items of furniture, balancing on, in, or around famous public monuments, or as some have even dared, partially inside or balanced across a toilet seat.

Don’t worry, I’m not about to tell you planking has some hidden applications to the world of exercise, health and fitness, or is in an way useful for the human body other than for the provision of amusement. But I will tell you about an entirely different method of planking that can indeed produce significant benefits for your health and fitness.

Also known as ‘bridging’, our healthy form of fitness planking is an excellent method of core training and targets an impressive tally of musculature throughout the body, depending on the particular variation performed.

Fitness plank positions can be performed facing down, up or sideways, and enhanced with modifications to alter difficulty levels. When holding steady in a particular position for extended periods of time, muscles contract isometrically, or ‘statically’.

Simply by adjusting positions, the muscles must resist the force of gravity, and are thus strengthened and toned safely and effectively without the need for repetitive motion.

Let’s begin with the standard prone plank. Prone means ‘face down’, so unlike the plank position you may have seen online on your news-feed, this variation involves raising the body up off the floor so that the balls of the feet and the forearms are your only points of contact with the floor.

Lie face down and raise your chest off the floor, supported by your elbows with your palms flat on the floor under your face. Lift your knees and hips up off the floor so that your body forms a perfectly straight line from head to toe, just like a plank of wood.

Hold the position for three sets of 30 seconds at first, and progress to longer periods of time as your core strength improves.

With this move you are targeting your abdominals, hip flexors, thighs, and shoulders.

Search for the prone bridge on Youtube to see just how simple this move actually is. To increase difficulty level try raising one foot off the floor at a time. When you’ve mastered that, raise the alternate hand off the floor too so that if your left foot is off the floor, so is your right hand, and vice-versa.

If you already work your abs hard, try combining the prone plank into your existing routine between sets of other core exercises instead of resting, for a truly advanced core conditioning routine.

These same positions and progressions can be applied to the side plank. Lie down on your side with your chest raised and supported by your elbow directly beneath. Your feet should be on top of each other and pointed forwards so that the side of your lower foot acts as a base of support.

Place your other hand by the side of your body, and pick your hips up off the floor until your body is straight and aligned. Holding this position targets the obliques or ‘love handle’ area, and is challenging on the shoulders too. Search for side bridge online to see this simplest of variations.

To spice things up a little, perform the side bridge resting on your hand and straight arm, rather than on your elbow. This will crank up the intensity, particularly if you also raise your top leg up on the lower one, assuming what could be described as a star-shaped position.

Finally, let’s have a crack at the supine, or ‘facing-up’ bridge. Lay down facing up with your arms by your side and palms pressed down into the floor.

Bend your knees, sliding your feet up towards your bottom. With your feet flat on the floor, press through your heels and raise your bottom up off the floor so that your body forms a perfectly straight line from your shoulders to your knees.

Your main points of contact with the floor are your shoulder blades and feet. This moves targets and tones the bottom and hamstrings, or in other words, that entire problem area at the backside of your body where your bottom meets the top of your thighs.

For a complete workout, perform each of these moves in succession with no rest (on both sides for the side bridge), hold for 30 seconds on each, and repeat the entire sequence three times.

You can perform this simple routine first thing in the morning before breakfast, and it won’t take more than 10 minutes of your time.

Plank online and you smile once, but plank for fitness and smile each and every time you check out your tummy and bottom in the mirror.

info@noble-gym.com