by Will Ruth, GRP Strength Coach

The Copenhagen plank is a full-body exercise emphasizing hip adduction, or drawing the thighs towards each other. Similar to the Nordic hamstring curl, the exercise was popularized from Danish or at least Scandinavian coaches and physical training resources. It’s sometimes also called a hip adductor plank or adductor side plank.

Hip adductor muscles are often neglected in sport and strength training. These muscles stabilize the hip during many lower body movements, but usually don’t directly act to produce a specific natural movement. Skating and skate skiing are exceptions where hip adduction is prioritized, yet still usually not with enough load, tension, or range of motion to achieve a muscular growth or strength stimulus. The Copenhagen or hip adduction plank offers ways to train hip adduction with just a bench and your bodyweight, with no additional machines required.

Watch my demonstration video for variations and key technique pointers:

• Hold a solid side plank position through the entire exercise. Keep head, shoulders, hips, and knees aligned, with the down-side arm in contact with the ground in a straight vertical position.

• Maintain firm contact between the lifting foot or leg and the underside of the bench at the top position of the exercise.

• Avoid torso sagging or hinging. Use an appropriately challenging variation and stop the set if there’s a technical error.

Use 3-4 sets of 10-20-second holds for the static Copenhagen plank variations. Begin with the “short lever” plank, shifting under the bench until the knee or thigh is the primary point of contact. Make the lever longer to increase challenge by shifting away from the bench until the lower leg or foot is the primary point of contact. You can use a variety of 3-4 sets of 10-second holds with a harder variation and 3-4 sets of 20-second holds with an easier variation. Or, use a time-based progression by taking an easier variation from 3 sets of 10-second holds up to 4 sets of 20-second holds, then add challenge and begin the progression again. Focus on the static plank variations before progressing to the moving variations. When you need more challenge than the static variations, do 3-4 sets of 10-20 reps per side lifting the down-side leg from the floor to the bench, squeezing the top position, and then lowering again.

We use Copenhagen planks with our other lateral and rotational hip exercises for the hip adductor and abductor muscles. These exercises work great in a warmup, in a short standalone circuit of shoulder, hip, and core exercises, and at the end of a strength training session. We generally focus one day of lateral and rotational hip training on more adductor exercises, emphasizing the skill and muscles drawing the legs toward the midline of the body, and one day on more abductor exercises, emphasizing the skill and muscles of drawing the legs away from the midline of the body.