There's no arguing that the push-up is a good exercise. That's one reason why you see so many home push-up challenges. But all that pressing volume needs to be balanced out.
The Chinese back plank is an entirely different strength challenge, and you can do it anywhere. Grab three chairs and see if you can hold for 30 seconds or more. Your back strength and posture will thank you for the attention.
When working out from home, we often do too many push-ups. This happens when push-up challenges spread like wildfire. Do too many of those and you'll be creating a ton of imbalances.
Flip a push-up on its back and you've got yourself a back plank. These effectively target your traps and rhomboids, helping build strength in muscles that push-ups miss.
It's easy to find yourself in a forward-slumped posture with poor spinal and pelvic alignment. You're probably even slumped a little right now.
Well, if you're frequently in poor alignment, it will be evident when you're lifting heavy weights too. Flip a Chinese back plank 90 degrees and you've got what should look like a good standing posture. Your glutes and core should be engaged, with your shoulders and neck in a far better position. Developing strength here will carryover to everything from walking to deadlifting.
When you exercise at home your training inevitably becomes more anterior chain dominant. It's much easier to push, squat, and lunge than it is to deadlift and row. That means more chest and quads and less of everything else.
Back planks recruit your entire posterior chain, force optimal postural alignment, and efficiently recruit your calves, hamstrings, glutes and spinal erectors.
Isometrics have many uses when working with your own bodyweight or limited resistance, some of which include high levels of muscle activation and creating a blood occlusion-type of effect. Plus, planks are just downright difficult, and isometrics can help you maintain muscle and strength.
When doing these as a challenge, use the setup described above. When using these as part of a workout routine, though, you'll want some way to scale them depending on your ability.
To take it up a level, throw some weight across your hips. For some efficient parenting, a small child would even work. You can also do these on one leg, although be prepared for some serious glute and hamstring cramping.
To make them easier, have your feet on the floor and hips in a bridged position.
Let us know how you did with the back plank challenge by sharing and tagging us on Facebook or Instagram. Your target is 30 seconds. Shoot this to a friend who likes a good challenge too!
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