Maggie's Farm

We consider planks to be a basic in the calisthenic component of a fitness program. While many planks are really isometric, I'll put them under the calisthenic umbrella along with more active planks like Mountain Climbers and Burpees.

Regular elbow or straight-arm planks are good uses of "rest" periods between weight-lifting, too. Planks are not really cosmetic, for creating visible 6-packs. You will never do that. They are core-strengtheners, which means torso. A sturdy torso is one's core.

I probably do 8-10 30-60-second planks of various types weekly, usually as part of supersets. Not much, but it fills the time. I do plenty of other calis that make demands on core, but all exercise stresses the core because...it's the core.

The 4-Week Plank Challenge