Streamline your core workout: Shed off ab exercises and slash your workout duration in half using this innovative trainer's approach.

Streamline your core workout: Shed off ab exercises and slash your workout duration in half using this innovative trainer's approach.

Gede Foster, the director of fitness and performance at digital fitness platform FIIT, has shared a simple yet effective hack for the plank exercise. This advanced variation, which involves the use of a stability ball, can significantly boost your core workout.

By incorporating a stability ball into the plank exercise, Foster's hack adds an element of instability, forcing the core muscles to engage more deeply to maintain balance. This not only increases muscle activation but also improves balance and stability, and enhances functional strength.

The Advantages of Gede Foster's Plank Exercise Hack

1. Increased Muscle Activation: The instability of the ball requires additional engagement of deep abdominal muscles, including the transverse abdominis and obliques.
2. Improved Balance and Stability: Maintaining plank position on a moving surface helps enhance proprioception and stabilizer muscle strength.
3. Enhanced Functional Strength: This advanced plank exercise mimics real-world core demands better than static planks, aiding overall athletic performance.

How to Perform the Advanced Plank Exercise

1. Begin in a standard plank position, but place your forearms on a stability ball instead of the floor.
2. Engage your core and concentrate on pulling your elbows towards your toes while in position.
3. Hold the position for a desired duration, with 15 seconds, 30 seconds, and 60 seconds being possible durations.

The Benefits of the Advanced Plank Exercise

1. Core Strength and Stability: The advanced plank exercise is beneficial for developing core strength and stability, making it an essential part of any abs workout repertoire.
2. Prevention of Injury and Promotion of Good Posture: Planks reduce the risk of injury and promote good posture, making them beneficial for runners and those with desk jobs.
3. Functional Movements: Planks are essential for functional movements like deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, and overhead presses.
4. Activation of Additional Muscle Groups: The advanced plank exercise activates the glutes and shoulder girdle in addition to the abdominal wall, training the relationship between these muscle groups.

For those who can hold a standard plank for a minute, the advanced plank exercise may only be manageable for 30 seconds. However, the tweaked plank makes the exercise that much harder, so it doesn't need to be held for as long to reap the same benefits.

Remember, forgetting to engage the shoulder girdle is a common mistake during plank exercises. Concentrate on pulling your elbows towards your toes to ensure your lower back holds a neutral spine position and your shoulder girdle is engaged.

Gede Foster's advanced plank exercise hack provides a dynamic challenge, making it an effective progression for those seeking to develop superior core strength and control.

Using a stability ball in the plank exercise, as suggested by Gede Foster, not only boosts core workouts but also increases muscle activation, particularly the deep abdominal muscles. (Incorporating science and fitness)

This advanced plank exercise doesn't just improve core strength and stability, but it also enhances balance, stability, and functional strength, moving beyond static planks to benefit overall health-and-wellness and athletic performance. (Linking the exercise to health-and-fitness and fitness-and-exercise)

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