Forget sit-ups and crunches: I did the gymnast plank for a week, and my core still hasn’t forgiven me
The article introduces the gymnast plank, an advanced variation of the forearm plank that emphasizes rounding the upper back and tucking the pelvis. It describes how to perform the move, recommended set and hold times, and notes that it targets the core and posterior chain without requiring equipment. The author cautions beginners, pregnant individuals, and those recovering from injuries to consult professionals before attempting the exercise.
- ▪The gymnast plank differs from a traditional plank by actively rounding the upper back and tilting the pelvis while balancing on elbows and pointed feet.
- ▪A personal trainer cited in the article claims the exercise is significantly more effective than crunches for core development.
- ▪The author incorporated the move into a pre‑run warm‑up for a week and reported lingering soreness in the core afterward.
- ▪The guide advises performing three to four sets of 15‑30 seconds and recommends beginners start with a standard forearm plank to build foundational strength.
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Story provenance
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Record
| Original publisher | Tom's Guide |
| Canonical URL | https://www.tomsguide.com/wellness/workouts/forget-sit-ups-and-crunches-i-did-the-gymnast-plank-for-a-week-and-my-core-still-hasnt-forgiven-me |
| Publication time | Tue, 30 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-06-30T06:59:53.391Z |
| Last seen | 2026-06-30T06:59:53.391Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | qnu8rz5Hu3GM |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
Rights status (four layers)
WeSearch handling by dimension
| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Wellness Fitness Workouts Forget sit-ups and crunches: I did the gymnast plank for a week, and my core still hasn’t forgiven me Features By Jane McGuire published 30 June 2026 Here’s how to try it When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Shutterstock) Copy link Facebook X Reddit Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Forget everything you thought you knew about the plank, as the gymnast plank is about to change it.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Tom's Guide.
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