Today, I wanted to go through the different arm positions when doing the Front Plank Exercise.
Front Plank is a very common exercise that is incorporated into health, fitness, performance and rehabilitation exercise programs.
This exercise can be done on the wall, on the floor or on top of a piece of fitness equipment. The front plank is an exercise for upper body stability, scapular stability, core stability, hip stability, and postural alignment.
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Hand Position #1 – Palms Down
Forearms in lined [¹] with the shoulders with palms down. This is a common best-hand position when doing which helps you balance during the front plank exercise. With the elbows up, you are working the shoulder at 90 degrees of external rotation which is good for shoulder health. This position also allows you to activate your scapular stabilizers and lats which help protect the shoulder and lower back [²].
Remember to keep the elbows below the shoulders in order to decrease the stress on the shoulder, especially the rotator cuff.
Hand Position #2 – Palms Facing Each Other
BEST Hand Position When Doing Front Plank Exercise: If you want to make the front plank more challenging, have your palms face each other so you are getting less help when balancing out with the hands. This will allow you to rely more on your core to stabilize and balance yourself out.
Hand Position #3 – Triangle Position
You get more help on the forearms when doing the triangle position. This is good for someone who is not able to get into the 90 degree external rotation of the shoulder. It put less stress on the shoulder than hand position #1 and #2.
Hand Position #4 – Genie Position
This is a very powerful position as you get lots of help from the forearms and the shoulder to create a stable position. This is a good position if you are going to do a front plank into a side plank and then back into a front plank position.This tends to put the shoulder in its best and safest position.
Those are the four different hand positions you can do when performing the Front Plank exercise.
If you are looking for more exercises that help strengthen your core, tighten your abs, slim your waist and flatten your stomach while keeping yourself injury free, then check out the Invincible Core program here:
Rick Kaselj, MS
