How to Plank To Shrink Your Waist – Beginners Guide

Did you know doing a plank is a full body exercise? It’s one of the key moves to help shrink your waist, tone your arms and improve your entire core!

Unlike a traditional sit-up that focuses on just the abdomen the plank works the whole core including your abs and lower back.

There is a specific way to do a plank though. You want to watch your form with each move in order to prevent injury and get the most out of it. Here are 4 tips to keep in mind when you plank!

Beginners Guide: How to Plank To Shrink Your Waist

1. Your Hands Should Align with Your Shoulder Width (You can also do a plank on your elbows)
2. Hold Your Stomach In – You want to hold your stomach in to protect your lower back.
3. Squeeze Your Butt  & Legs – this keeps the weight evenly distributed through the body to work every muscle and help protect you from a potential injury.
4. Breathe & Focus on Your Alignment – You should be looking 3 to 5 feet out in front of you, and a friend should be able to place a full cup of coffee on your back without it spilling for your alignment.

You can also do a side plank to isolate your obliques, the outer part of our abdomen where your waist is. You will want to have your hand lined up with the shoulder and work on turning your whole body to the side.

Your hips, chest, and arms should all be like they are being pressed up evenly to a wall.

This is a challenging move for your whole body with an emphasis on the side towards the floor. You can modify the intensity of the move by dropping the bottom leg down to the floor.

Your alignment with your hips, chest and shoulders should still be strong. You can also make the move easier by dropping to your elbow versus your hand and putting the top foot on the ground.

Do you plank?

I’m not a certified personal trainer, but you can get a Full Body HIIT workout from ACSM (a leader in personal fitness) here!