Fitness tip: High plank

Hi, everybody. It's Chef Shada with Action News' Fitness Tip. I'm at the Ab Apartments in King of Prussia. I hope you're having a fabulous day. What do I have for you today? Well, if you really must know, we're gonna plank. Don't panic. Don't run away. Come back. We're gonna get into plank, and we're gonna do a little mix-up to the plank. Let's challenge ourselves, yeah? Come on. Do it with me. High plank. We're gonna start here, okay? So, wrists in line with the shoulders. We wanna retract our shoulders down. Pull the belly up and in. You don't wanna sink into the lower back, okay? I want you to feel this in your core, in your arms, in your quads, pushing back through the heels. Lifting that right leg up, okay? Here we go. Right knee to the right elbow, right knee to the left elbow, then back to the right elbow, and we're back to center, and we repeat it. So, we go right, left, right, and back down. We're gonna stay on that side, okay? Try and get 10 to 15 reps out of that breathing, right? So many people hold their breath when they work out. I want you to really focus on breathing. Inhale, exhale, okay? So, we're gonna do it again. We're gonna pull the knee to the elbow, to the left elbow, to the right elbow, and back down, keeping the belly pulled in. So, once we've completed those reps on the right leg, you're gonna switch to the left leg and do the same thing. Now, if you're watching this and you're like, Shoshana, you're nuts. You're nuts. You're crazy. I cannot do that. That's okay. I got you. We're gonna modify it. We're gonna have an option. It's not a big deal. It'll still work. Now, instead of having both knees off, you're gonna drop that left knee. Close the right one up. So, now we're still in the tabletop position, okay? All we did was drop that left knee. Our hips are square, meaning right hip, left hip faces the ground. And we're still gonna pull that knee to the elbow and go across, back, and extend. So, you're still getting that core engagement. You're still working on your breath work, taking it side to side, and back out, right? So, just because if a high plank is just not the level that you're at and you're discouraged by that, you gotta start somewhere so you can drop your knee to the ground and work through that. And then as you get stronger, maybe lift the knee up for a little bit and try a couple without the knee on the ground, right? Progress, not perfection, right? You gotta start somewhere. I hope you enjoyed this exercise. Give it a try, whichever option suits you best, and have a wonderful day.