The Plank is a really great pole move! It looks beautiful, can make you a lot stronger and leads into many other moves as well.
The Plank and the Layout are very similar moves. In my opinion (as I’m sure some of you may disagree!) the Layout is similar to the Plank.
Both are from seats with your legs straight. In the Layout your hand is higher than your body whereas with the Plank, your hand is lower, as in the picture.
The ‘How To’ Part
- Climb the pole and go into a seat. Straighten out your bottom leg.
- Place your hands at chest height.
- Lean away from the pole with your top half as you straighten out your top leg, and twist your hips into the pole. Make sure that you twist into the pole with your top leg and cross the ankles.
- Keep the same side hand as the top leg on the pole. Place the other hand (same side as the lower leg) underneath you on the pole. You want to make sure your thumb is closer to the ground.
- Slide your bottom hand lower down the pole until you can take your weight in the bottom hand. Push into the pole with this hand.
- When you have a good grip, take your top hand off of the pole and out by your head.
- Push your hips up to the ceiling and push your feet closer to the ground. Hold the Plank.
Tips
The hardest part of this move is to make sure that your feet don’t ping up. It requires you to be really strong through your core. As soon as you bring your hand low on the pole, start to push your hips up to the ceiling. At the same time, try to push your feet down towards the ground. If you keep your legs straight, pushing your hips up and your feet down will help to keep you on the pole.
Make sure you twist your hips so that your top leg is into the pole as it will stop you slipping down the pole. Initially keep your ankles crossed to give you more support. When you feel more confident you can try to keep your legs straight but uncrossed.
As you become more confident with the move, you will be able to place your hand low on the pole in the correct position without having to slide your hand down the pole.
When you are in the Plank, make sure that you keep your hips high. Try to point your feet towards the ground. These are both really key elements to the move. If you have someone spotting you, get them to place one hand above (or on) your feet to help keep them from pinging up.
To come out of the move push into the pole with your bottom hand as you pull yourself up with your core. As soon as you can, place your other hand back onto the pole above your body. Pull up and go back into a seat.
What Next?
From the Plank you can go in to so many moves. Obviously, you can go back into a Layout, a seat or any seat variations.
You can also lean back into a Cross Ankle Release. To go into this move, make sure that you have a strong grip on your legs before you take your hands off. As you start with your hips twisted for the Plank, you will need to straighten out your hips for the Cross Ankle Release. As you twist, you may slip slightly on the pole. Keep a strong grip with your legs. You can place one hand high on the pole to steady yourself before leaning back.
From the Cross Ankle Release, you can also go into the Bow and Arrow, Iguana, Pencil… There are so many more!
Enjoy the possibilities! 🙂
