Anne Hathaway's PT never skips this exercise to build full-body strength - and it's so easy to do
Using muscles in the shoulders, arms, back, and core, the plank is one of the most versatile strength exercises you can do
Anne Hathaway has had a busy few years, making her a huge comeback in roles like The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey, and Verity, Coleen Hoover's book adaptation due to be released in October. The 43-year-old is looking fit and healthy, with her third child on the way.
Monique Eastwood is the personal trainer behind Anne Hathaway's workouts over the years. Her unique blend of Pilates, strength training, and barre exercises comes from her background as a former professional dancer.
While she has many go-to exercises, she told Women's Fitness there's one move she never leaves out. "I love bodyweight moves like the plank, and you'll always see one in my sessions. It's a fantastic way to build core strength," she says.
Monique, 59, knows how important it is for women to maintain flexibility and muscle mass with age to live healthily and independently for longer. “We all need to be able to hold our own body weight and get off the floor,” she says. “I focus on functional strength.” That's where the plank comes in.
What is the plank?
The plank is an incredibly popular bodyweight exercise which can strengthen your core and improve your balance and stability. Some love it, others loathe it, but incorporating it into your exercise routine will bring many strength and mobility benefits, as well as helping prevent injury.
Here's how to do a classic plank:
- Start on all fours on a thick mat, with your hands positioned directly under your shoulders and knees under your hips.
- Stretch your legs straight behind you. Keep your knees off the ground and your toes flat to the mat.
- Inhale and exhale slowly, while drawing your belly button in and squeezing your glutes.
- Keep your hips up to avoid any sagging in your lower back, and maintain a straight line from your head to your toes.
If you’ve never done a plank before or have any injuries, you can do a half plank on your knees, which won’t put strain on your lower back. You can also do an elevated plank, with your hands resting on a bench if that’s easier.
Variations on the plank include side planks, plank rows with weights, plank with shoulder taps and plank with hip dips.
Benefits of a plank
Even if you can only manage 20 seconds each time, there are lots of benefits to doing the plank exercise regularly. In fact, a study in the European Journal of Sports Science found that doing plank training three days per week for 12 weeks had major benefits.
These include:
- Changes your body composition by increasing muscle mass.
- Improves your cardiovascular fitness by lowering your heart rate, decreasing activity in the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and increasing parasympathetic nervous activity (rest and digest).
- Improves your posture by strengthening your back, chest and shoulder muscles.
- Improves core strength, both in the abdominals, obliques and back muscles.
- Improves your flexibility by lengthening your hamstrings and foot muscles. Side planks with an overhead arm stretch give a great stretch along the sides of your body.
- It's easy to modify because there are lots of variations to make planks both easier and harder.
- Helps with functional fitness, such as bending, reaching, and carrying, which we all do in our daily lives.
- You can do it at home, on holiday or in a gym. No special equipment or space needed.
Monique, who also trains British star Emily Blunt, doesn’t want fitness to be complicated and off-putting. She recommends making movement part of your everyday life rather than something formal you feel guilty about if you don’t fit it in.
“Start small, build gradually, do activities you enjoy and eat to nourish your body,” she says.
