Planks and push-ups are the basics. When you graduate from being a novice in the gym, you’ll often move on to other exercises instead.

But the basics are the basics for a reason… and one of my core fitness philosophies is that I believe strongly in the basics.

In the video below, I talk about how to optimize shoulder position for planks. This related to push-ups also. An active shoulder means a improved ability to ground yourself to the floor and stay in control of your body. Try this out and make sure you’re doing it properly.

Even if your planks feel easy, you can make them more effective with this technique. The skills you learn in the plank (developing body tension - including in the shoulder; keeping optimal positions; and building stamina in these positions) will transfer over to more complex exercises down the road. Otherwise, you’re just ingraining sloppy technique that will come back to bite you when you try increasingly difficult exercises and physical activities.