Now that we're almost two weeks into our plank challenge, you've probably figured out that some kinds of planks feel harder than others. Tiny changes in your body's position can make a big difference.
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Dear readers, I'm sorry. When I asked Lifehacker staffers what's been missing from our fitness challenges, the resounding answer was that we all need to spend a month working on our plank game.
We've told you how to do planks, and why to do planks, and what to do instead of planks when you get bored of planks. But there's a critical thing about planks we forgot to tell you: You don't have to hold the position until you collapse.
Sit-ups and crunches might be routine exercises recommended over the years to strengthen your core, but maybe it's time to ditch these moves for the sake of the rest of your body.
When you were a kid, you probably did sit-ups at school for an ab workout. But is the sit-up the best ab exercise? That's actually a simple question. No way! There are far better ab exercises than a simple sit-up, which can exacerbate back problems and only focuses on one small area of the abdominals.
For a (thankfully) hot minute, planks reached viral status when everyone tried to "plank" on ridiculous surfaces. In fitness, planks are a legit ab exercise, but there's no need to treat them as the "one ab exercise to rule them all." You might be better off with push-ups, which are basically leveled-up planks.
