Goal: Hold a steady plank
One long plank or several shorter ones?
Dr Nicola Tik
When you’re working towards a longer plank, it can feel like the only way to get there is to hold on for as long as you can. But longer isn’t always better. How you split your plank time can make a real difference to how well your muscles learn to hold you steady.
When muscles hold a strong squeeze, they press on the small blood vessels running through them. Research suggests that above a moderate level of effort, blood flow into the muscle drops, and less oxygen reaches it. That’s one reason a long hold gets so hard so quickly, and why form often falls apart at the end.
Short rests let blood flow back in, so your muscles can work at a good level again.
What builds staying power is the total time your muscles spend working in good form. Several shorter holds with brief rests often add up to more good-form time than one long hold that ends in a struggle. Spine researchers often recommend shorter, repeated holds for building trunk endurance for this reason.
Long holds still have a place. Your weekly check-in uses one, so you can see how far you’ve come. Practising one longer hold now and then also helps you get used to staying steady for longer. The idea is to use them as a test, not as your main way of training.
During your sessions, you could keep a rough count of your total good-form plank time, rather than your longest hold. Many people find that number grows quickly, even when their longest hold doesn’t change much.