fitness

How long should you plank for?

This month, on May 18, at the 1st International Plank Training Conference with Guinness World Records officials on hand, Dana Glowacka took the women’s world plank record by holding the pose for four hours and 20 minutes.

That’s FOUR HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES!

Read more here.

But how long should you plank for? Are you tempted to go for a plank personal record, if not a world record?

Personal trainers say, just don’t. While there’s a lot of debate among trainers about how long you should plank for the range seems to be between 10 seconds and a couple of minutes. No one mentions hours.

Here’s the case for 10 seconds, lots of reps of 10 seconds but still, just 10 seconds.

From another plank story:

“Definitely not more than a minute. Unfortunately, most people are doing them wrong,”

Personal trainer Amanda Thebe told Global News. “By simply holding a plank position without creating adequate tension throughout the whole body, they are not getting the full plank benefits.”

“If you are doing a plank and can hang out there easily for a minute or more, then chances are you aren’t doing it correctly. You should be clenching your glutes, like you are trying to eat your shorts, your core should be braced like you are being punched in the gut and you should be squeezing all other muscles tightly so that there is a full body connection.

Men’s Health makes the case for three minutes here.

This plank workout looks pretty good to me. Lots of variety and 30 second planks.

How long does you hold planks for? What’s your record?