This 5-Minute Plank Row Workout Is Tougher Than It Looks | 5 Minutes of Hell

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2 years ago

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.

This 5-Minute Plank Row Workout Is Tougher Than It Looks | 5 Minutes of Hell | Men’s Health Muscle

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