1Hips sag and the lower back arches
What you see: The middle drops and the low back sways toward the floor.
The fix: "Tuck your lower back", "abs tight", squeeze your glutes. Shorter, cleaner holds beat long sagging ones.
Form guides · Core
The plank: hold the line.
A good plank is a short, hard hold, not a long sag. Here is how to make every second count.
What good looks like.
The plank trains your trunk to stay still while everything around it wants to move. Done well, it is a whole-body brace: abs, glutes, shoulders and legs all working. Done badly, it is a long, slow sag into your lower back.
- Elbows under your shoulders, forearms on the floor.
- A straight line from your head to your heels.
- "Tuck it": tilt your pelvis under a touch so the low back flattens.
- "Abs tight" and glutes squeezed the whole hold.
- Breathe steadily. Stop the set when the line breaks, not when the clock says.
- Chin in
- Back flat, not sagging
- Glutes squeezed, "tuck it"
- Elbows under the shoulders
The faults a trainer sees most
What goes wrong, and the cue that fixes it.
The cues in quotes are the words Brad Glaser uses with his own clients.
2Hips pike up
What you see: The bum rises into a tent shape to make it easier.
The fix: Lower the hips into the line and squeeze your glutes to hold them there.
3Head drops
What you see: The head hangs toward the floor.
The fix: "Chin in." Eyes on the floor just in front of your hands.
4Shoulders sink and round
What you see: The chest sags between the shoulder blades.
The fix: Push the floor away with your forearms so your upper back fills out.
Make it easier, make it harder.
Easier
- Plank with your hands on a bench or counter.
- Plank from your knees.
- Several short holds instead of one long one.
Harder
- Forearms on a stability ball, as Merissa shows in the photo.
- Lift one foot, then the other.
- Side plank.
Move within a range that feels comfortable, and stop any exercise that hurts. Have a health condition, or been inactive a while? Ask your doctor what is right for you first. VeraForma is coaching, not medicine. It does not diagnose, treat or cure anything, and it does not replace your doctor or physio.
Let your phone hold the clock.
Planks and wall sits are timed for you, with the countdown called out and shown on screen, so all you do is hold.
Not sure which of these faults you carry? Your free movement screen: one squat on camera, and the faults a trainer would name, with the angle drawn on your body.
Scan to open it on your phone.
Free: your movement screen, Phase 1 of your programme and all of nutrition.
More form guides
Built by Brad Glaser · NASM Master Trainer · NASM-CPT, CES, PES · 20+ years · has certified 100+ personal trainers.
He owns a personal-training studio in Southern California. The same method he uses standing next to a client, built into the app.
Train it right, free.
Scan to open it on your phone.
Free account, no card. Brad's questions. One squat on camera. Then your results.