4 Secrets to Help You Hold a Plank for Longer

For what seems like a really basic exercise, a plank can really help you in getting a stronger core. If you have ever seen anybody holding a plank, you must have thought to yourself just how easy the move looks… until you actually drop down on the floor and do it yourself!

Fitness enthusiasts believe that anybody who says that a minute passes really fast has probably never held a plank for a minute long! Just doing a full plank for 30 seconds may require a lot of effort for a few, let alone a full 60 seconds one.

However, the benefits of following a plank routine consistently are so amazing that it would be a really dumb idea to skip over the plank and do something else. From helping your spine become more aligned, improving your posture and balance and of course, strengthening your core, the plank should definitely be a part of your exercise regime.

And to help you have an easier time managing a plank for more than 30 seconds, we provide you with four ways. Let’s get started.

1 Play Your Favorite Song:

A lot of people find it easier to hold a plank while listening to their favorite song in the background. A song, on an average, is somewhere between 2 to 3 minutes long. You can break the song to suit your needs. For example, you can tell yourself to hold the plank position till the chorus comes on for the first time.

2 Start Naming Things with Each Letter of the Alphabet:

The trick to holding a plank for longer is to keep your mind busy and not focus on the time. Though making life-changing decisions while doing a plank hardly seems to be a good idea, what you can do is mentally start naming things with each alphabet, starting from A going till Z.

Time goes faster that way.

3 Start Reading:

If coming up with names of things starting with each alphabet seems like a lot of mental work, you can simply grab a book or a magazine, plop it open in front of you, and read the lines as you hold your plank.

The idea behind this is the same: keeping your mind distracted and not allowing it to focus on the time.

4 Switch it Up:

The really awesome thing about planks is its variation. You have a full plank, you have an elbow plank, an up and down plank, a side plank, a plank where you just balance on one arm while the other is extended outwards etc. If you have trouble holding a full plank for a minute, you can drop down to an elbow plank for 30 seconds. The trick is to keep the plank, but you can switch up the variations and give your body something new to adjust too.

Try any one of these tricks the next time you are “planking” and see which works out best for you!