Weighted Plank
A plate across your upper back is the honest way to progress a plank once long holds turn into boredom-limited endurance tests: added load brings the challenge back to 20 to 30 second efforts. Have a partner set the weight over your upper back, not your lower spine, and treat any hip sag as the end of the set.
How to do the Weighted Plank
- Start by lying face down on the floor.
- Place your forearms on the ground, with your elbows directly under your shoulders.
- Extend your legs straight out behind you, with your toes on the ground.
- Engage your core and lift your body off the ground, balancing on your forearms and toes.
- Keep your body in a straight line from your head to your heels.
- Hold this position for the desired amount of time.
- Lower your body back down to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Tip: Pull the elbows toward the toes and the toes toward the elbows without moving either to fire the whole core.
Muscles worked
Common mistakes
- Hips sagging — squeeze the glutes and tuck the pelvis slightly so the lower back stays flat; a plank with an arched back trains nothing useful.
- Hips too high — the body should be a straight line from head to heels, so check in a mirror or have someone lay a bar along your back.
- Time over tension — a two minute plank with a loose core is worse than 30 seconds with everything braced; shorten the hold and squeeze harder.
- Holding the breath — breathe normally through the hold and keep the abs braced through each exhale.
Where it fits in a workout
Planks go at the end of a session or in the warm-up to switch the core on before squats and deadlifts. Superset a front plank with a side plank each way.
How many sets, how heavy and how hard: see what the ACSM position stands support.
Variations and alternatives
Similar exercises
Without weighted
When to talk to someone
- Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number.
- Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms like these when you are active: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.
- Pregnant: ask your obstetric care provider which exercise suits you.
Track the Weighted Plank in SetGrip
All 1,100+ exercises with animations are in the app. No account, no sign-up — your history stays on your iPhone and in your private iCloud. Works with Apple Watch.
More exercises
Sources
- ACSM position stand on exercise quantity and quality (Garber et al., 2011)
- ACSM preparticipation health screening (Riebe et al., 2015)
- ACOG Committee Opinion No. 804 on exercise in pregnancy (2020)
- CDC: About Heart Attack Symptoms, Risk, and Recovery (2024)
Sources checked on October 17, 2026. Full citations are in the exercise library.
Animation and exercise data: ExerciseDB, licensed to SetGrip. General information, not medical or coaching advice.