"If you can't hold a plank for 120 seconds, you're either a) too fat; b) too weak; or c) doing something wrong in your workouts." How true is this?

[raymo]

@dunak The old RR had planks but for only a minute. The newer versions threw them out in favor of [have it as an early progression for the] other exercises for core work.

 

[vintageroses]

@raymo Crap, I'm still doing planks - need to go update my wall poster lol. I haven't strictly been doing the RR, but still was referring to it now and then.

 

[manatus22]

@raymo The new routine still has planks it just changes them out for a different anti extension exercise when you hit 3 x 30 seconds.

 

[raymo]

@manatus22 I guess I got past that. Every so often I'll still do them in the warm-up the old RR had.

 

[sammyboy]

@zondaar39 Ruth Bader does planks for several minutes at a time and she’s really old.

 

[vintageroses]

@sammyboy Yeah, well she's a god damned super hero!

 

[daviddass1]

@zondaar39 New people to body weight fitness might think this is important (2 minutes plank), or that.. hollow body for 2+ minutes is extremely important (this was such a widespread thing couple of years ago, even people that now dispute it were claiming it was The Truth back then), but after a while you'll see that it is just endurance and nothing more than that.

I can do both 2+ minutes, and it means nothing. It just means you are strong in that position and that's it. Your abs are most probably getting enough workout from the normal routines, assuming you are doing them properly. It doesn't carry to front lever, or dragon flag, or something like that. It just doesn't.

Don't stress over numbers, be mindful of your overall health and strength. Give priority to your health, there's nothing more important in this world.

 

[lectiodivina]

@zondaar39 Life, like nutrition, is more complicated than we usually have time to discuss, so we say something clever to make it memorable, which has value even if not completely true.

 

[kojex2]

@zondaar39 I work out like 5 days a week...I probably cant do this. And its because I just dont do planks period. If I did them then my body would be adapted to them and I could do it.

 

[rebella]

@zondaar39 but you could say that about anything.

"if you cant do ten pullups unbroken, you're either too fat, too weak, or doing something wrong"

 

[myles6794]

@zondaar39 No I am hella out of shape, but naturally short waisted so I can hold a plank for that long. Seriously body shape matters, my friend is in excellent shape, a runner, goes to the gym regularly, but she is a typical pear shape, very large breasts and hips, very narrow waist, makes planks difficult for her but is in no way an accurate picture of her over all health.

 

[vintageroses]

@myles6794 Ugh, I am 6'6" and have a proportionally long torso. I'm in the best shape of my life and can barely plank for 1 minute, lol.

 

[khuleman]

@zondaar39 The person stating this probably isn’t performing planks properly

 

[chaorabite]

@khuleman Came here to say this. I’ve seen another article stating something along the lines that if you are holding a plank for more than 60 seconds, you’re doing it wrong. Reason being that you should be engaging your core and other muscles so well that it should always be hard to maintain for 60 seconds.

 

[bryan8585]

@zondaar39 Naw, even when I've been in the best shape of my life from climbing/working out, I struggled with a 2 minute plank. And that was at 5'10"/170lbs of semi-lean muscle, visible six pack, climbing 2 hours/working out 1 hour and doing it 4-6 days a week. I seem to have naturally mediocre core strength with decently wide shoulders and thunder thighs.

 

[cconversation]

@zondaar39 I'd say the real statement is, "if you can plank for 30 seconds, you can plank for 120 seconds if you just practice for a few weeks." There is nothing special about planking for 2 minutes. 2 minutes is pretty arbitrary anyway, why not 5 minutes or 30 minutes? There are people who can plank for hours and hours. But who cares? If planking is a goal for you, then plank, if not, then don't.

 

[jajejllc]

@zondaar39 If you can hold a plank for two minutes you're planking wrong.

 

[ghose]

@zondaar39 This is stupid because I can hold a plank for 5 minutes and I’m still too fat soooo

 

[tumilee]

@zondaar39 If you’re doing 2min planks, you’re just wasting your time, when you should be doing harder variations for shorter hold times.

 

[1w7]

@zondaar39 I read somewhere that planking for more than 1 minute is not even effective.