Are you struggling to get back into exercising? You don’t know where to start? Don’t look any further, and start very simple. We present the exercise you already know but hardly ever use. Drums please…The plank.

Start small

For a lot of people, training 3 x a week can be very intimidating. Especially when you are out of shape and you’re carrying a couple of extra pounds.

Don’t fall into the trap of training like an Olympic athlete 4 times a week for 3 hours. That is for sure a recipe for failure.

Instead, take it slow and let your body get used to resistance once again. You will be amazed how fast your body kicks back into training mode.

The Plank

The plank is a famous exercise that can be done at home and in under 10 minutes a day to get you started.

This is how you do a proper plank:

Start on your forearms and your toes. Think that you are making an imaginary line from your ear to your ankle. So your bum is not in the sky, and your lower back is not bending down. This is the setup.

Now imagine that:

– you push your shoulders away from your ear
– you squeeze your abs as if somebody would come by and slap on your stomach with a flat hand
– you pinch a 50 euro banknote between your bum cheeks
– you tense your upper legs so that your knee caps are moving slightly up.

We refer to this as the full body tension plank. You tense your whole body and hold it for 25 sec.

The Program

So this is what you do in the morning. Start with your daily morning routine. After that:

3 x 25-second full body tension plank. And off you go. You’re ready to conquer the world.

Just 10 minutes a day to get you started

So there you have it. Not 200 squats and 300 jumping jacks. But a simple little program to get you started. After two weeks of daily practice, you will feel better, you will have more confidence and energy to start your proper workout program. Watch this space for the next phase of your operation beach body.