How (and Why) to Do Copenhagen Planks

The basic idea is to support your upper body on your forearm or hand, while your leg is supported on a bench or another object. In team practices, a partner can stand up and hold your leg while you’re doing the exercise.

Start with as much of your leg on the support as possible. In order of easiest to hardest, the progression goes:

1. Knee or thigh on the bench
2. Shin or foot on the bench
3. Dipping the hips toward the ground and back up, repeatedly (This can be done in either position.)

While planks are often done for increasingly long periods of time, you don’t have to take that approach to get the benefits out of the Copenhagen plank. Try a 10-second hold, repeated three times with rest in between as needed. When that gets easy, try a harder variation.

What if I can’t do a Copenhagen plank?

If you can’t do any of the versions above, even the one with your knee on the bench, one way to modify is to keep your free leg on the ground. Lift your hips mostly with the top leg, but use some support from the bottom leg to help.

If you’re still not comfortable with that, you may need to do side planks (from the knees is fine) to build up your core strength, and look elsewhere for adductor exercises. This banded adductor exercise is a good place to start, and you can also do single-leg movements like step-ups to work the adductors alongside other leg muscles.