This 5-Minute Plank Row Workout Is Tougher Than It Looks | 5 Minutes of Hell | Men’s Health Muscle
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00:00By the end, your back, your abs, your forearms,
00:02your grip will be completely smoked.
00:04Hey, y'all. Brett Williams here for 5 Minutes of Hell,
00:07and today I am joined by the man himself,
00:11Men's Health Fitness Director, Ebenezer Samuel.
00:14Eb, we've been waiting for this. What do you got for me?
00:17I've been looking forward to this one for months
00:19because we're going to change things up.
00:21We're not just going to make you work hard,
00:22but we're still going to build muscle in this one.
00:24We're going to go elevated plank rows,
00:26alternating between reps and iso-holds,
00:29and then we're going to get off of that elevation,
00:32go down to a regular plank row to finish things up.
00:34By the end, your back, your abs, your forearms,
00:36your grip will be completely smoked.
00:38All right. You know, may as well get stronger.
00:41Let's do it.
00:47We have some dumbbells. I see a plate here.
00:51So how does this all go together?
00:53Yeah, so what we're basically going to do for this entire workout,
00:56we're going to alternate, like I said,
00:57plank rows on the elevation with plank row holds.
01:00It is a long explanation,
01:01but it winds up being really simple in practice.
01:03The plate is a surprise. You'll see that eventually.
01:06It's going to keep you accountable to something.
01:08But I want to talk a little bit about the weight you use.
01:10So we need to know how much you row on a standard dumbbell row
01:14in order to figure out the weight you're going to use for this workout.
01:16Okay. I usually, if we're talking about a working set,
01:20standard dumbbell row, I'm usually about 80 pounds.
01:24Okay. So what we want to do is you want to take a little bit,
01:27either half of that or a little bit more than half.
01:29So I'm going to give you a choice between 40 or 45.
01:32Let's go with 40s. We brought the 40s over. Let's do that.
01:37So I guess the only thing left is to do the workout.
01:42So I will get in the position.
01:45Okay. And we get to go into drill sergeant mode. Ready for this?
01:48All right.
01:48Let's get set up in plank position in three, two, one, let's go.
01:55So again, Brett, for this first minute,
01:57we're going to work through 10 seconds of plank rows.
01:59And I want you to slow it down actually a little bit, Brett.
02:02Don't focus on rushing through, but focus on getting that right hip down.
02:05So what happens when we're on the side of the plank row,
02:07very often that hip starts to rise.
02:09So I want Brett to squeeze harder on the glute,
02:12on the glute, on the working side hip.
02:15That's going to help bring that hip into balance.
02:16So you can do that a little bit better, Brett,
02:18or else we're going to wind up using that plate.
02:21The whole idea here, we're getting a lot of back work.
02:24We're getting a whole ton of core work on this,
02:26and his grip is going to be taxed by the end.
02:28Now he's done. Now he's going into these 10 second holds.
02:31One, two, now really drop that hip.
02:33Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
02:40Other side.
02:42Quick switch.
02:43Squeeze hard on that left glute.
02:45Yeah. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
02:53Perfect timing. Let's go.
02:54Now he's on eight.
02:56So he's starting to fatigue a little bit with each of these sets.
02:59Try to get a little bit of a longer pause at the top
03:01and try to get a little bit less rotational action.
03:04Good.
03:06The goal on the plank row is to be as quiet as possible.
03:09So we want to get, we want to keep the shoulders level
03:11and we want to keep the hips level the entire time.
03:13Really try to drop that left hip.
03:16Good.
03:19Six, right?
03:20Seven, eight.
03:22Now we're on perfect time again.
03:24He's got a 12 second hold on each side.
03:26Gonna finish a little bit early this minute.
03:29Five, six, drop that right hip.
03:31Seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
03:36Early. Back, switch sides.
03:38You're good.
03:39One, two, try to drop this shoulder.
03:42Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
03:47Almost there.
03:48Ten, eleven, twelve.
03:50Two minutes down.
03:50Now the fatigue's setting in, but now the reps drop.
03:53The iso holds increase, which is the game.
03:55Let's go.
03:56You've got six reps.
03:58One, two.
04:00Yeah, you can dead stop them if you need.
04:01If you start to fatigue a little bit.
04:03Four, five, six.
04:06Switching sides.
04:06Really focusing as this wears on.
04:08The iso hold is going to keep him accountable
04:10because these reps are going to get messier and messier.
04:13That's okay.
04:14Come on, Brett.
04:15Four, five, six.
04:18Now he gets to the iso hold and he gets to be accountable.
04:22We've got 15 second iso holds on this.
04:24One, two, three.
04:26Good fix.
04:27Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
04:33You've got five, four, three, two, one.
04:38Good.
04:39Switching sides.
04:40Almost done.
04:42Fifteen, fourteen.
04:43Drop that shoulder for thirteen.
04:44Twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
04:54Good.
04:55One more minute.
04:56He's down to four reps though.
04:57So you can take like five seconds.
04:58Collect yourself.
04:59And then we just got to hit these.
05:01These are going to get sloppier and sloppier because he's under more fatigue.
05:04But really focus on dropping that right hip.
05:06Good.
05:07Two, power.
05:08Three, four.
05:10Good.
05:10Now he's only got to get four reps on the other side.
05:12Get there.
05:12Come on.
05:14One.
05:15Drop that left hip.
05:16Two.
05:17Good fix.
05:18Three.
05:19Good.
05:19One more.
05:20Four.
05:21Good.
05:24These are down to 15.
05:25We're almost done with this part.
05:26And then we get to level things out.
05:28We're going to lose range of motion over that final minute.
05:30Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, five, four, three, two, one.
05:42Good.
05:42And we're going to cut this short.
05:43He's only going to get about 11 seconds on this side.
05:45That way we can make sure to hit the final piece of this.
05:4911, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
05:57So everything.
05:58The thing that is burning the most regret most likely at this point isn't even his back.
06:03It's his abs.
06:04Now we're going 25 seconds of these plank rows alternating.
06:08Goal is anti-rotation.
06:10Goal is don't lose the plate.
06:11So keep everything level.
06:12Let's go.
06:14One.
06:14Good.
06:16Yeah.
06:16Now he's really got to squeeze down on his glutes and his abs.
06:19His back is fried.
06:20His grip is fried by this point.
06:23Give me another five, four, three, two, one.
06:28Good.
06:28And now we're going 10 second holds.
06:31There we go.
06:32Nice.
06:32Good fix.
06:33Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.
06:39Other side.
06:40This is it.
06:40Let's finish up.
06:42Try to tighten up that left glute.
06:45Six, seven, eight, nine, 10.
06:52Oh boy.
06:54Oh, that was tough.
06:55Glad you chose the 40s.
06:57Yep.
06:57Good call.
06:59Um, that was much harder than I think it looks like just because we were doing really,
07:07you know, we were doing two moves, really variations on the same,
07:12but I can tell anyone who is watching the rows were tough,
07:17but keeping my core integrity on point was the hardest part.
07:22Why did you design this to just wrack me trying to stay stable like that?
07:28Well, this is meant to be not even just a workout,
07:31but it can also be a really, really great finisher on the end of the back day.
07:35The one thing we forget when we're doing rows very often
07:38is to maintain a little bit of core tightness.
07:40For this whole series, you're essentially,
07:42with the exception of the times when you're switching weights,
07:45it's five minutes of plank and dynamic plank
07:49because you have to really try to stabilize and anti-rotate.
07:52While you're rowing up and letting that weight lower down.
07:54It's also, as twisted as it may sound,
07:57this is as manageable as it can get when we're trying to pack a dense five minutes into action
08:02because we're alternating between concentric contractions,
08:06which obviously we know you're going to be strong on at the very start,
08:09but as the workout wears on,
08:11we go from 10 reps down to four reps of concentric,
08:14but are isometric.
08:15You can fight for that at least.
08:18Part of that is the stealthy core work though,
08:20because in order to fight,
08:21yes, your back is fatigued,
08:22but that means your abs and glutes have to do a ton of work.
08:24I am tired,
08:26more tired than I look probably,
08:29and I can tell you,
08:30I will not forget that my core is more than just abs after this.
08:36If you want to really feel everything,
08:37get that good concentric,
08:40give this one a try.