If the variation with the top leg straight is too challenging, you can either rest the bottom leg on the ground or bend the top knee. The exercise is isometric and involves a squeezing movement to keep your legs together. Start with the top leg bent, and slowly move the bottom leg and body up and down. Once you have mastered the basic form of the Copenhagen Plank, you can progress to more advanced variations. Remember to maintain proper form throughout the exercise and stop immediately if you feel pain or discomfort. prohockeystrength.com., the official website of the Strength and Conditioning Association of Professional Hockey. If youre coming off of a knee injury, or have a history of knee pain, try the regression variations first. Build abs, obliques, and shoulder strength with the Copenhagen plank delt raise. Important consideration: Some groin problems may have a secondary related abdominal issue. Just like the abdominal muscles, they often work in everyday life as stabilizers, not necessarily movers. Copenhagen Plank - Sweat Forget counting your reps in minutes. Then, you'll hover the other foot a few inches below the bench and hold this position as steadily as possible. How (and Why) to Do Copenhagen Planks - lifehacker.com.au Copenhagen Planks for Strength and Reducing Risk of Groin Injury (Science-Based) E3 Rehab 26K views 2 years ago Adductor Mobility Flow [P]rehab 22K views 4 years ago 3 Core Exercises You Should. This will ensure that you are engaging and strengthening your adductors correctly. However, having very strong abductors, but weak adductors, wont create the overall stability around the hips that you need. After holding the tuck planche, you must be excited to move towards the advanced tuck. And yet, [the inner and outer thighs are] often neglected parts of the body, so some people have weak adductors without really knowing it, she explains. 2013;48(14):1108-1114. By squeezing your legs together, you will engage your core muscles to keep yourself straight while holding the isometric contraction. This regression involves performing the side plank on the forearm rather than extending the arm fully to increase stability. A great alternative is the Copenhagen plank: a version you can do at home, does not require a partner, and has multiple levels of progressions for various skill levels. And dont let the difficulty level discourage you or make you feel inadequate even pros like Ros think the Copenhagen plank is an exhausting but worthwhile move. What is the proper form for Copenhagen Plank? The Copenhagen plank is an excellent exercise to test your core strength, stability, coordination, and balance. Orthop J Sports Med. Check out our Hip Resilience program! This exercise got its name (and its mild popularity) from research out of Denmark that showed it helps to prevent groin pulls in athletes. It doesn't just target your obliques like a side plank, but it also fires up your adductors and your abductors your inner and outer thigh muscles. Sound complicated? You should always seek medical advice from a health/fitness professional before starting any new fitness program. This variation requires more balance and stability to maintain the position. Copenhagen plank - Wiktionary Strong adductors means stronger abs and vice versa, and both help us shift out of the extended posture that most of us live in. Say you notice that its much easier to do a Copenhagen plank on your right side than your left, a potential sign of a muscle imbalance. There is one exercise that you can do with zero equipment at home to strengthen your adductors and help prevent injury. You can keep the bottom leg on the ground. Below we list all the variations you can apply, from easy to hard, so that you can pick the right one based on your skill level. Popular with Strength Coaches and Physical Therapists alike, the movement can help improve lumbopelvic stability, core strength, and healthy hip function. It is located on the islands of Zealand (Sjlland) and Amager, at the southern end of The Sound (resund). Then return to the starting position and repeat. The main technique for mastering the Copenhagen Plank exercise is to keep your core and glutes tight. To make the Copenhagen adductor plank even harder, you could also switch the support system to a suspended one. Do you want to be doing more core strengthening exercises like Copenhagen Plank? Furthermore, you must keep your body straight while holding the plank position. Additionally, be careful not to overexert yourself start with more accessible variations and work your way up as you get stronger. Here are some options: Also known as the Vasisthasana in yoga, the side plank is excellent for strengthening the core muscles and activating stabilizer muscles. Lift your lower leg off the floor so it hangs under the bench, unsupported. Or, try driving your bottom knee up so it's in line with your hips, keeping it bent at a 90-degree angle, suggests Ros. It is also important to keep your legs wide when performing Copenhagen plank, as this will target the adductor muscles more effectively and add an extra challenge to the exercise. Here are 3 progressions that I like: Option #1: Squat Progression Level 1 - Bodyweight Squat. But what good does it actually do for you and your body? It is suggested that you perform hip mobility exercises to warm up the muscles before doing a Copenhagen side plank. First up, let's have a look at the anatomy of the groin. The Copenhagen plank also works on core stabilization. How to Do the Copenhagen Plank: Technique and Popular Progressions You can also check out his Instagram, he's pretty easy on the eyes. The benefits of healthier hips can address musculoskeletal problems in other areas of the body too, such as knee pain and back ache. This variation will target the core muscles more intensely than the regular side plank. That's what makes this a great plank, Samuel says. For even more stability challenges, move off of your forearm and onto your hand. As such, a better name might be the adductor plank, or adductor side plank, but the Copenhagen name has stuck. To make it harder, use the internal part of your upper foot to hold the position rather than the leg. All else equal I prefer this over the bent-knee variation because in real life the adductors contact with the ankle/foot as the contact point, so I think this transfers over to sports and real life better. You can make the exercise easier by resting the bottom leg on the floor, or positioning yourself closer to the bench. You'll need a bench or a stable object to perform the Copenhagen plank. Your abductors also help stabilize your leg, preventing your knee from collapsing when youre balancing on just one foot, she adds. Not enough exercises really focus on developing groin strength. In our opinion, the best way to progress this movement is to use a suspension trainer (like a TRX system) to rest your upper foot. Everyday activities like sitting at a desk for extended periods, leaning over your phone or tablet, and even sleeping in an awkward position can contribute to neck pain. This can make Copenhagen Planks a critical exercise in your strength training plan to help reduce groin injuries. Looking to improve the strength, range of motion, and control of your hips to enhance your function and performance? These muscles consist of the adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus, pectineus and gracilis, all of which are primarily responsible for adducting the hip, or moving the leg toward the midline. Haroy J et al. For more information, please see our Squeeze your thighs to hold this position. Published: Oct 13, 2020 Yes, you can hold a plank for hours upon hours. By Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. These both reduce the amount of load and effort placed on the top leg, thus making it easier to hold. It targets the leg adductors, which are muscles often neglected in training, but they play an essential role in our everyday lives and workouts. In order of easiest to hardest, the progression goes: While planks are often done for increasingly long periods of time, you dont have to take that approach to get the benefits out of the Copenhagen plank. The Copenhagen Plank is very simple, all you need is a chair or bench. You can further challenge your shoulder stability and cores anti-rotation capacity by holding a kettlebell with your free hand (with the bottom of the bell pointed toward the ceiling), extending your arm straight up, and holding it there. Mix the Copenhagen plank into your usual resistance training regimen and try holding it for 10 to 20 seconds at a time, doing three to four sets on each side, suggests Ros. Our inner thigh muscles, called the hip adductors, are responsible for pulling our legs in toward each other. This plank variation challenges even the strongest coreand gives runners an extra form boost, too. How to Perform and Progress the Copenhagen Plank The basic idea is to support your upper body on your forearm or hand, while your leg is supported on a bench or another object. Doing Copenhagen Plank is a great way to strengthen your core, improve stability and reduce injury chances. If you can nail those, you've just dominated the. Check this article review of the best resistance bands: Torroband Resistance Bands: The Best Resistance Bands for Home Fitness. Begin by lying on your right side with your shoulder, elbow, and forearm stacked in a. Make sure to progress from the more accessible variations to the more challenging ones as you get stronger. Thorborg K, et al. If you want to improve your function and reduce your risk of reinjury, strengthening your quads needs to be your top priority. Copenhagen Plank - Olympic Weightlifting: Catalyst Athletics Move it out more, and the lever becomes longer and more challenging. In team practices, a partner can stand up and hold your leg while youre doing the exercise. Generally speaking, I think core exercise can be sprinkled in every training session during rest periods from major strength movements. As is the case with any plank variation, think: Abs on, glutes on. An individual starts by lying on his or her side with the forearm supported on the floor and the top leg being held by a partner at either the ankle or the knee. That's the most common mistake you see in a Copenhagen plank because it's so hard to maintain that anti-rotation, she explains. Serner A, et al. Countless studies have shown that the Copenhagen adductor plank is second-to-none when it comes to developing adductor strength. In addition to strengthening the adductors, the Copenhagen plank also contains the elements of a normal side plank, meaning it has a side effect of strengthening a variety of core muscles . Unlike most plank holds, which encourage 60 seconds or more of isometric agony, the Copenhagen plank is a brief affair. EMG evaluations of hip adduction exercises for soccer players: implications for exercise selection in prevention and treatment of groin injuries. As the Copenhagen plank aims to strengthen the hips, it would be ideal to start by performing some hip mobility exercises to warm the muscles up and improve the range of motion. Many of the muscles in this group are thin and can be prone to tears or strains (pulls), so the researchers used this exercise to strengthen the adductors. The adductor group's action is to well, adduct the leg which means bringing your leg closer to the midline. If youre an athlete, then, theyre a crucial part of most sports. If you want to make the Copenhagen plank more challenging, you can try the following progressions: Take a narrower grip with your hands while doing the Copenhagen plank to increase the intensity. It worked: Programs including this Copenhagen adductor exercise made male soccer players adductors stronger, and while its not a silver bullet for preventing groin strains, it seems to help. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. The basic idea is to support your upper body on your forearm or hand, while your leg is supported on a bench or another object. As well as developing hip strength, the Copenhagen plank is also a great way to activate the core muscles, especially the obliques. If done correctly and youre really focusing on what it's targeting [read: the core and thighs], the Copenhagen plank is really hard to hold for even 10 good seconds, says Analisse Ros, C.S.C.S., a certified personal trainer and strength and conditioning specialist in Connecticut. More broadly, you may think of the adductors as crucial stabilizer and core muscles. The first is that it strengthens your frontal plane. The knee-assisted plank simply requires you to use your knee as support to provide extra stability. Imagine your heels, butt, and back of your head are all touching a wall and your body forms a straight line in order to get the most benefit out of the exercise, she suggests. Your #1 site for all things sports rehab, sports performance, and orthopedic rehabilitation is: https://www.sportsrehabexpert.com/http://www.annarbor.physio . Engage core, grounding through left elbow and side of left foot, and lift hips and knees off the floor. How to do a Copenhagen plank 1. It is a fairly technical exercise; for this reason, we will describe in detail how to perform it successfully and apply regressions or progressions when needed. To increase the challenge of the Copenhagen Plank, you can wrap a resistance band around your legs while doing the exercise. From there don't just think about haphazardly lifting the bottom leg towards the top. This help increases the strength of your adductors and improves your overall hip stability and balance. In 2013, Serner and colleagues compared 8 adductor exercises and found the Copenhagen adduction exercise to elicit high activation of the adductor longus. Bourne M, et al. As Ive learned from the postural restoration institute, a lot of the movements in our body couple together. 2. For runners, this position reinforces the posture you want when you run. Planks arent that easy to add weight to. The groin is a loosely defined term and what we are actually going to focus on is the adductor group of muscles. When it comes to the Copenhagen plank, the more surface area of your leg that rests on the bench, the easier the exercise will be, says Ros. This variation requires you to alternate between a high plank and low plank position while keeping your core engaged and stable throughout the motion. While holding the plank position, the stabilizer muscles in your core will need to work extra hard to keep your body which is being supported only by the foot resting on the bench in place.
