Planks Muscles Worked: Exercise Benefits, Variations + How-To

Plank Muscles Worked – Introduction

What muscles do planks work?

And frankly, what’s so great about planks in the first place?

Show me someone who says they don’t want a slim, toned stomach, and I’ll show you a liar!

While that might be a slight exaggeration, it’s true often enough that abs training is top of many people’s exercise to-do list.

Of all the exercises you can do for your midsection, the plank is one of the most popular.

There is a good reason for this – planks are GREAT!

However, there is more to getting good results from planks than doing them every day or for five minutes at a time, neither of which are effective strategies.

This takes a deep dive into all the hows and whys of planks so you can learn how to get more from this versatile exercise.

Planks Muscles Worked

Planks are a yielding isometric exercise, the classic static hold, which means they involve contracting your muscles against a weight without producing movement.

While planks are mostly thought of as an abdominal exercise, they actually involve a wide range of muscles.

They could even be considered a full-body strength-building exercise.

The main muscles used during planks are:

• Rectus abdominis – the muscles on the front of your abdomen
• Internal and external obliques – your lateral abdominal or waist muscles
• Transverse abdominis – your internal abdominal muscles and your natural weightlifting belt
• Quadratus lumborum (QL) – the paired muscles on either side of your lumbar spine play a critical role in spinal health, connecting your spine, hips, and ribs.
• Erector spinae – the muscles of your lower back
• Quadriceps – the muscles on the front of your thighs
• Gluteus maximus – the muscles on the back of your hips
• Pectoralis major – the muscles on the front of your chest
• Deltoids – the muscles of your shoulders

Done correctly, proper form planks develop all of these different muscle groups.

However, you’ll probably feel them most in your midsection.

What Muscles Do Planks Work?

Benefits of Planks 

Not sure if planks deserve a place in your workouts?

Here are a few reasons to do this popular exercise!

Anywhere, anytime

Planks require no equipment, so you can do them anywhere you’ve got space to lie down.

They’re ideal for home workouts, and you can do planks at the gym, too.

They’re the perfect excuse-free core exercise.

Highly functional

The muscles of your midsection flex, extend, and rotate your spine but also prevent unwanted movement through a mechanism called bracing.

You should brace your core anytime you lift or carry anything to stabilize your lumbar spine.

Planks teach you how to brace effectively so that it happens automatically when you need to stabilize your spine for increased lumbar stiffness.

As such, planks may even help prevent low back pain.

Scalable

Planks can be modified for all fitness levels of exercisers.

A lot of people simply plank for longer and longer as they get stronger, but this is not always necessary.

There are several ways to make planks harder without making your workouts long and boring.

Similarly, there are regressions for less experienced exercisers.

Beginners, intermediate, and advanced exercisers can all do planks and get great results from them.

See The 10 Best Exercises for Over 50 and Out of Shape for more options to fuel your fitness.

Better posture

Planks teach you to hold your body in a straight line.

This can have a positive effect on the alignment of your joints, i.e., posture.

Good posture makes you look younger and slimmer, takes stress off your joints, and enhances function.

How to Do the Basic Plank

To enjoy the myriad benefits of planks, you need to do them correctly.

Poorly performed planks could lead to injury.

So, follow these steps and learn to plank like a boss!

1. Lie on the floor with your body straight.
2. Rest on your forearms, so your upper arms are vertical, and your elbows are beneath your shoulders.
3. Your forearms should be parallel, or you can clasp your hands if you prefer.
4. Pull your shoulders down and back, and brace your abs.
5. Pull your toes up and press the balls of your feet into the floor.
6. Tense your thighs and glutes.
7. Lift your hips up, so your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your feet.
8. Tuck your chin down and in so your neck is straight, too.
9. Hold this position for the prescribed duration, e.g., 20-60 seconds.
10. Breathe rhythmically throughout your set.
11. Holding your breath could lead to an unwanted increase in blood pressure.
12. Lie back down at the end of your set, rest for a moment, and repeat.

Note: Some people prefer to get into a plank from a kneeling or push-up position, and both of these methods can work.

However, ensure that your end position is the same as described above, i.e., your body is straight and braced.

Plank Variations 

You don’t have to limit yourself to plain old regular planks.

Instead, try these tried and tested variations of the plank!

#1. Kneeling plank 

If you can’t hold a full plank for 20 seconds or so, you will probably benefit from doing a slightly easier version.

This exercise involves a shorter lever, so there is less weight on your midsection.

This is also known as a three-quarter plank.

How to do it: 

1. Lie on the floor with your body straight.
2. Rest on your forearms, so your upper arms are vertical, and your elbows are beneath your shoulders.
3. Your forearms should be parallel, or you can clasp your hands if you prefer.
4. Pull your shoulders down and back, and brace your abs.
5. Bend your legs, so your feet are raised off the floor.
6. Lift your hips up so your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees.
7. Tuck your chin down and in so your neck is straight, too.
8. Hold this position for the prescribed duration, e.g., 20-60 seconds.

#2. Hardstyle plank 

One of the main drawbacks of planks is how long you can do them once you’ve developed a reasonable level of abdominal strength.

In fact, the world record for planks is something like nine hours! ¹

Needless to say, planking for hours at a time is NOT a good use of your training time.

The hardstyle plank, also known as the Russian Kettlebell Challenge (RKC) plank, is designed to fatigue your muscles in 20 seconds or less, so it’s much more time-efficient.

How to do it: 

1. Adopt the plank position as usual but then contract your entire body, including your abs, as hard as possible.
2. Tense your hands, arms, chest, shoulders, glutes, and legs.
3. Continue ratcheting up the muscle tension, so you are exhausted after 15-20 seconds.
4. Do this by imagining you are pulling your toes toward your elbows.
5. If you feel you could have done longer, you weren’t contracting your muscles hard enough!
6. Generating total body muscle tension takes practice, but once you get it, you’ll never need to plank for more than 20 seconds again.
7. Apply this technique to all other types of plank for a more time-efficient workout.

#3. Bear plank 

Bear planks involve more upper body muscle activation than the traditional plank.

You’ll probably feel this exercise in your arms, shoulders, and legs, as well as your core.

This is a good variation if you want to do planks but don’t want to lie on the floor.

How to do it: 

1. Kneel on all fours, so your arms are straight, your shoulders are directly over your hands, and your hips are over your knees.
2. Brace your abs and tuck your chin down and in so your neck is straight.
3. Rotate your elbows in toward your sides to engage your upper body.
4. Using your quadriceps, extend your legs and lift your knees 2-3 inches off the floor.
5. Hold for the desired duration.
6. Make this exercise harder by imagining you are pulling your knees toward your elbows.

#4. Tripod plank 

Planks are an anti-extension exercise.

In other words, you use your abs to hold your body straight while resisting the pull of gravity.

The muscles on the front of your body do most of the work.

With tripod planks, you lift a hand or foot off the floor, which forces you to resist rotation AND flexion at the same time.

This increases oblique engagement.

How to do it: 

1. Adopt the plank position as usual.
2. Brace your abs.
3. Lift one hand or one foot off the floor, taking care to maintain proper alignment.
4. No twisting is allowed!
5. Hold for the desired duration and repeat.
6. One way to do this exercise is to lift each arm and foot in turn for ten seconds to total 40 seconds per set.
7. Advanced exercisers can turn a tripod plank into a bipod plank by lifting one arm and the opposite leg.
8. This variation is very challenging!

#5. Side plank or side bridge

The side plank puts more emphasis on your oblique or waist muscles.

Your rectus abdominis is still involved, but you’ll be working it one side at a time.

Make sure you train both sides equally, or you could end up with lopsided abs!

In fact, the side plank is the second of Dr. Stuart McGill’s famed “McGill Big 3” exercises to help increase your endurance strength and protect your spine from the risk of injury.

How to do it:

1. Lie on your side with your lower arm bent.
2. Rest on your elbow and forearm.
3. Brace your abs and straighten your legs.
4. Lift your hips up, so your body forms a straight line.
5. Hold this position for the desired duration.
6. You can also do this exercise with your legs bent to make it easier.
7. Alternatively, imagine pulling your elbow down toward your feet to increase muscle activation.

#6. High plank

Also known as the push-up plank (PUP), the high plank position works your core muscles.

Having a strong core plays a critical role in push-ups, keeping your body straight like a plank of wood and ensuring your midsection remains stiff.

If your midsection collapses, you’ll waste energy and could also hurt your lower back.

While you can do planks on your elbows, this plank exercise variation is more pushup specific.

How to do it:

1. Adopt the push-up starting position with your arms extended and your body straight.
2. Engage your abs.
3. Without holding your breath, hold this position for the recommended duration of 20 to 60 seconds.
4. While this straight-arm plank will work your triceps and upper body more, the forearm plank or elbow plank (basic plank) will work better if you want to target your abs.

#7. Stability ball plank

Planks are often described as a core stability exercise but stabilizing your body on the floor is not really much of a challenge.

After all, the floor doesn’t move!

Stability ball planks will test and develop your core stability far more as you’ll need to work harder to control the ball.

How to do it: 

1. Kneel on the floor behind your stability ball.
2. Place your forearms on the ball, and then walk your feet back until your legs and body are straight.
3. Brace your core.
4. Hold this position for the desired duration.
5. Increase core engagement by driving your elbows into the ball with more force.

See 7 Best Medicine Ball Exercises for Abs + Six-Pack Core Workout for additional ways to lean out your midsection.

#8. Weighted plank 

Another way to make planks harder is by adding extra weight.

To do this exercise, simply ask your training partner to GENTLY place weight plates on your lower back/hips.

Brace as usual against the greater load.

Then, when you are finished, ask them to remove the plates.

Take care when doing weighted planks not to let your hips drop out of alignment, as doing so could hurt your lower back.

Planks Muscles Worked – Wrapping Up 

Planks are an excellent core exercise, but does that mean you should do them every day?

Probably not!

If you train your muscles hard enough, they usually need 48 hours to recover.

So, if you feel you can plank every day, you probably aren’t working hard enough to produce meaningful results.

So, while 30-day plank challenges can be fun, they aren’t necessarily the best way to build core strength.

Instead, treat planks like any other strength training exercise.

Work hard and do it 2-3 times a week on non-consecutive days.

And remember, if you are training for six-pack abs, you must also address your diet.

No matter how hard you plank, your abs won’t be visible unless your body fat is low enough.

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Footnotes

¹ How long to hold a plank – how about nine hours?!