Forearm plank
Hold the trunk steady while supported on forearms and toes.
Trunk control family
Forearm plank
DemandMedium
Equipment requiredBodyweight + Floor space
Muscle focusAbs · Shoulders · Glutes
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Source-researched guide. Clinical review is pending.
How to move
- Place forearms on the floor with elbows under the shoulders and extend the legs onto the toes.
- Lift into a long head-to-heel line, keeping the waist from sagging.
- Breathe normally, then lower the knees and rest before form deteriorates.
Form cues
- Keep the neck in line.
- Quality matters more than hold duration.
Practice and cautions
No universal dose is assigned. Choose a manageable amount for your current capacity, leave room for controlled repetitions, and allow recovery. A clinician’s individual plan takes priority.
It keeps weight off bent-back wrists, so it is the plank to choose with wrist pain. Modify it with shoulder pain, and keep breathing rather than straining if you have high blood pressure. With heart disease, keep breathing and ask your cardiac team before long holds; with heart failure, avoid planks. This is movement education, not an assessment or treatment prescription. Stop for sharp or increasing pain, dizziness, numbness or tingling; seek individual guidance for symptoms, injury or restrictions.
Sources and review status
Sources support the educational description; they do not establish that this exercise is suitable for you.
- NASM · Plank ↗
- Free Exercise DB · alias and muscle metadata ↗
Unlicense · Free Exercise DB contributors; derived from wrkout/exercises.json. Text import; no photographs or media. · Revision f00c92c7dcf1216a928a52c3706c7ce8e2f71ed5
No variation is labeled clinically validated.
What it works
Muscles
Main: Abs. Also: Shoulders, Glutes.
Anatomy: Rectus abdominis, Obliques, Transversus abdominis.
Equipment
None: body weight and floor space.
Level
Intermediate. See the easier and harder options above.
Workouts that use it
- Full-body bodyweight workout · 30 min
- Ab workout (no equipment) · 20 min
- Push-up progression workout · 15 min
- 10-minute Pilates abs · 10 min
- Full-body mat Pilates workout · 30 min
- Weights then cardio: a steadier-glucose workout · 45 min
- Animal moves for kids: a 15-minute active play workout · 15 min
- FIFA 11+ warm-up · 20 min
Show all 38 workoutsShow fewer workouts
- Headstand progression · 15 min
- Push-up challenge workout · 15 min
- Plank challenge workout · 12 min
- 7-minute workout: follow-along timer, 12 moves · 12 min
- Basketball injury prevention warm-up · 10 min
- Volleyball warm-up · 15 min
- Cricket warm-up · 12 min
- Netball warm-up: the KNEE programme · 20 min
- Field hockey warm-up: the Warming-up Hockey sample session · 12 min
- Badminton injury prevention warm-up · 20 min
- Gaelic games warm-up (built on the GAA 15) · 15 min
- Strength and hamstring workout for sprinters and hurdlers: the athletics prevention programme, Nordic curls and heavy legs · 50 min
- Handball warm-up: Knee Control, Shoulder Control, landings and a throwing build-up · 20 min
- Gym ab workout: cable crunches, hanging knee raises, rollouts and carries · 25 min
- Core session A: dead bugs, curls and front planks · 12 min
- Fitness test workout: chair stands, push-ups, a plank and a timed walk or run · 45 min
- Ab wheel progression workout: from planks to full rollouts · 20 min
- Off-the-wall Pilates for climbers: a 25-minute class for trunk tension, hips and shoulder blades · 25 min
- Pre-season Pilates for skiers: a 25-minute class for trunk, hips and single-leg balance · 25 min
- Off-court Pilates for basketball players: a 25-minute class for trunk control, hips, ankles and one-leg balance · 25 min
- Yoga for footballers: a 25-minute recovery-day class for hips, groin, hamstrings and balance · 25 min
- More push-ups workout: harder sets, quick practice sets and a pull · 30 min
- Core strength workout: one move for each job your trunk does · 25 min
- Wrist-free Pilates for carpal tunnel: a 25-minute class with nerve and tendon glides and no weight on your palms · 25 min
- Wrist-kind Pilates: a 25-minute class on your forearms, with a wrist strength block and steps back onto your hands · 25 min
- Forearm stand progression · 25 min
- Yoga after a hamstring strain: a 25-minute class with the lengthening exercises built in, and no deep forward folds · 25 min
- Between-splits Pilates for bodybuilders: a 25-minute class for the shoulder blades and upper back, trunk control while you breathe, the hips and a slow wind-down · 25 min
- After-shift Pilates for firefighters: a 25-minute class for back and trunk endurance, the hinge, shoulder blades, one-leg balance and a wind-down · 25 min
- Off-track Pilates for sprinters: a 25-minute class for trunk control while the legs move, the front and back of the hip, and one-leg balance · 25 min
Pain guides that use it
Part of a staged plan, with when to get help first.
- Wrist pain in push-ups and yoga: what to change now and how to build back
- Finger pulley injury (climber's finger): grades, taping, rehab and getting back on the wall
- TFCC tear and pain on the little-finger side of the wrist: what helps, what a scan shows, and exercises
- Ganglion cyst on the wrist, hand or foot: will it go away, should you drain it, and training with one
- Elbow bursitis: signs of infection, what helps, and protecting your elbow
- Kienböck's disease: when a wrist bone loses its blood supply, and what helps
- Wrist pain when bending it back: push-ups, yoga, a fall, hidden ganglions and the scaphoid
- Neck pain when doing sit-ups: pulling on your head, the neck muscles, technique and swaps
Show all 23 pain guidesShow fewer pain guides
- Lower back pain when doing planks: the sag, the hip flexors, holding too long and what helps
- Lower back pain when doing sit-ups: the arch, the hip flexors, the tailbone, crunches and what helps
- Wrist pain when doing planks: the wrist bent back, forearm planks, fists, handles and swaps
- Hip flexor pain when doing sit-ups: the front of the hip, anchored feet, the groin and swaps
- Shoulder pain when doing planks: the front and top of the shoulder, the shoulder blade, side planks
- Hip pain when doing mountain climbers: the hip flexors, a pinch at the front, pace and the plank
- Back pain when doing push-ups: the lower back sagging, between the shoulder blades, and swaps
- Groin pain when doing sit-ups: hooked feet, the inner thigh, the lower tummy, hernias and swaps
- Lower back pain when doing ab wheel rollouts: the sag, how far to roll, the hip flexors and swaps
- Wrist pain from yoga: downward dog, plank and arm balances, where it hurts and what to change
- Wrist pain after Pilates: planks, leg pulls and the reformer, where it hurts and what to change
- Back pain from basketball: jumping, landing, contact, stress fractures in teens and what helps
- Back pain from volleyball: spiking and serving, jumping, stress fractures in teens and what helps
- Back pain after football (soccer): kicking, tackles, young players' stress fractures and what helps
- Back pain from hockey: field and ice hockey, the crouch, drag flicks, young players and what helps
Guides that use it
- Pilates guide
- Pilates for your core guide
- Pilates for climbers guide
- Pilates for skiers guide
- Pilates for basketball players guide
- Pilates for carpal tunnel guide
- Pilates with wrist pain guide
- Pilates for golfer's elbow guide
Show all 88 guidesShow fewer guides
- Pilates for volleyball players guide
- Pilates for gymnasts guide
- Pilates for bodybuilders guide
- Pilates for badminton players guide
- Pilates for firefighters guide
- Pilates for netball guide
- Pilates for sprinters guide
- Pilates for belly fat guide
- Pilates for toning guide
- Pilates for love handles guide
- Pilates for spine health guide
- Pilates for the waist guide
- Yoga for core strength guide
- Yoga for heart health guide
- Yoga for carpal tunnel guide
- Yoga for wrists guide
- Yoga for footballers guide
- Yoga for climbers guide
- Yoga for basketball players guide
- Yoga for volleyball players guide
- Yoga for tennis elbow guide
- Yoga for a hamstring injury guide
- Yoga for trigger finger guide
- Yoga for gymnasts guide
- Yoga for Crohn's and colitis guide
- Yoga for breast cancer guide
- Yoga for heart failure guide
- Yoga for prostate cancer guide
- Yoga for diastasis recti guide
- Yoga for lymphoedema guide
- Yoga after gallbladder removal guide
- Yoga for golfer's elbow guide
- Yoga for toning guide
- Yoga for the hands guide
- Exercise for osteoporosis and osteopenia
- Exercise with type 1 diabetes
- Exercise for children and teenagers
- Exercises for ankylosing spondylitis
- Exercise for ADHD
- Diastasis recti exercises
- Exercise with Crohn's and colitis (IBD)
- Exercise for autistic children and adults
- Exercise with HIV
- Anterior pelvic tilt guide
- Swayback posture guide
- Scoliosis guide
- Lordosis guide
- Warming up guide
- Plank times guide
- Headstands guide
- 7-minute workout guide
- Sit-ups guide
- How to get abs guide
- How to tone up guide
- Dragon flags guide
- Ab wheel rollouts guide
- Dead bugs guide
- Hollow body hold guide
- Bear crawl guide
- Plank guide
- Crunches guide
- Pike push-ups guide
- V-ups guide
- Cable crunches guide
- Medicine ball slams guide
- Crab walks guide
- Incline push-ups guide
- Ab crunch machine guide
- Do more push-ups guide
- Core strength guide
- Muscular endurance guide
- Strengthen your wrists guide
- Forearm stand guide
- Push-up test guide
- Plank test guide
- Sit-up test guide
- Football guide
- Basketball guide
- Field hockey guide
- Gaelic games guide
Similar moves
3D demoForearm plank pike (butt-ups)Intermediate · No equipment
3D demoStraight-arm plank (high plank)Intermediate · No equipment
3D demoKnee side plankBeginner · No equipment
3D demoSide plankIntermediate · No equipment
3D demoSide plank with leg liftAdvanced · No equipment
3D demoBodyweight get-upIntermediate · No equipmentBrowse more
Questions people ask
What muscles does the Forearm plank work?
Mainly the abs, with help from the shoulders and glutes.
What equipment do I need for the Forearm plank?
No equipment: your body weight and a little floor space.
Is the Forearm plank good for beginners?
It is graded intermediate. If it is too hard right now, start with the Stomach vacuum (drawing-in).
What is an easier alternative to the Forearm plank?
Try the Stomach vacuum (drawing-in) or the Dead bug. Both are written steps in the same progression.
How do I make the Forearm plank harder?
Progress to the Plank walk-up or the Inchworm walkout. Follow that guide’s technique and any stated timing.