Physical therapist John Pallof shared an easy exercise with just a few influential strength coaches within the early 2000s. It offered an efficient approach to challenge core stability in an upright, athletic position. On account of the exercise’s relative starting and ending point, he called it the belly press.
Fast-forward 20 years. Pallof’s “belly press” was renamed by the use of common usage, and what’s turn out to be often known as the Pallof press is a mainstay exercise in settings from rehabilitation clinics to the strength and conditioning facilities of elite athletes. (1)(2)(3)(4)
This relatively latest spin on the classic plank challenges core strength at a special approach, literally. The direction of force requires anti-rotation, versus dynamic rotation. “Anti” movements are a generally missed and undertrained aspect of core health and strength.
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How can a single exercise be effective across such a big selection of populations? Well, it’s scalable for difficulty, making it effective and accessible to beginners and experienced athletes alike. It also trains the body to withstand rotation, which is beneficial across human movement patterns from athletics to every day life. Here’s an in depth take a look at the Pallof press and learn how to incorporate into your training plan.
Pallof Press
Classic Pallof Press Video Tutorial
Creator Dr. Merrick Lincoln demonstrates the Pallof press within the video below. Read on for step-by-step instructions.
The way to Do the Pallof Press
Follow these detailed instructions to dial-in proper Pallof press form for optimum profit and efficiency. You’ll need a cable system with an adjustable pulley or a resistance band and a stable, chest-high anchor point.
Step 1 — Set Your Equipment and Step Out
Credit: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube
Set a resistance band or cable pulley (with a single handle attached) at roughly chest-height. Grasp the band or handle with each hands and hold it in front of your sternum with bent arms.
Pull your shoulders back and brace your core. Sidestep away from the anchor-point until you are feeling moderate tension on the band, or until the load plates lift several inches from the cable stack.
Form Tip: Although that is just the “setup” of the exercise, your core is already experiencing resistance from the band or cable. Before the walkout, not after, is the perfect time to set your brace and tense your abs, as this avoids having to determine proper alignment while under greater resistance.
Step 2 — Quarter-Squat and Press
Credit: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube
Along with your shoulders squarely over your pelvis and your feet just beyond shoulder-width, perform a shallow squat. Maintain this stable position throughout the rest of the exercise. Slowly press the band or cable directly away out of your sternum until your elbows are straight.
Form Tip: The turning force from the band or cable doesn’t stop at your core. You have to to determine a firm reference to the ground throughout the Pallof press. Accomplish this by attempting to “grip” or “spread” the ground along with your feet.
Step 3 — Pause at Peak Tension
Credit: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube
This portion of the exercise is answerable for a comparatively great amount of the training stimulus, so give it loads of attention. The top position of the press is essentially the most difficult a part of the exercise — Savor it by pausing for a moment or longer.
Form Tip: You’ve (likely) inhaled to set your brace before initiating the repetition, and also you’ve exhaled throughout the pressing motion. Now, fill the pause at peak tension with one other full breath cycle (breathe in, breathe out) without losing your brace. That is approach to ensure you hold the pause for a sufficient duration.
Step 4 — Return to Start Position
Credit: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube
Pull the band or cable handle back to your sternum with a smooth, controlled movement. Repeat steps two through 4 (press, pause, pull back) for the specified variety of repetitions before sidestepping toward the anchor point or pulley and switching sides.
Form Tip: Although the exercise becomes progressively easier as you bring the band or handle back toward the beginning position, don’t lose your brace. Strive for no movement below the shoulders.
Pallof Press Mistakes to Avoid
Don’t be lulled into pondering this simple-looking exercise doesn’t require focus. Avoiding these Pallof press pitfalls ensures exercise effectiveness.
Setting Up at an Angle
One common error within the Pallof press occurs before the exercise really begins. After you step out with band or cable, your torso should be perpendicular to the road of pull of the resistance. Don’t bend at your waist and don’t stand in front of, or behind, the anchor point or cable.
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Any substantial deviation from perpendicular will reduce the effectiveness of the exercise by decreasing the turning force (“torque”) applied to your trunk. An oblique angle reduces demand in your obliques.
Avoid it: No must track down a protractor or angle finder. Just imagine a straight line running between your shoulder joints and one other straight line running through your hip joints. These two imaginary lines needs to be parallel to one another and run at a right angle to the actual line of the band or cable.
Midsection Motion
Poor trunk control throughout the Pallof press is indicative of a misunderstanding of the exercise or the usage of an excessive amount of resistance. Assuming you’re not simply overpowered by the band or cable, you possibly can improve your Pallof press form by specializing in a “braced” midsection.
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Avoid it: Treat the Pallof press like a “standing plank.” Make your trunk rigid by bracing or co-contracting the muscles on the front, back, and sides of your midsection.
Retreating Quickly From Peak Tension
The Pallof press needs to be most difficult after the press, when your arms are outstretched in front of the body. That is informed by Newtonian physics (i.e. “law of the lever”) and it’s supported by the apparent sensation of effort you need to feel on the end-range.
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Avoid it: Make Sir Isaac Newton proud by pausing and demonstrating control when the resistance force has essentially the most leverage. When your elbows are straight and your hands are at roughly chest-height, take a moment to confirm your shoulders and hips are square. As you breathe throughout the pause, ensure your midsection is tight and braced before returning to the beginning position.
The way to Progress the Pallof Press
When progressing the Pallof press, use a mixture of traditional exercise variables (e.g. adding resistance or volume) and non-traditional variables (e.g. devising modifications that increase the technique-demands or complexity of the exercise. (5) When the standard Pallof press gets too easy, lean into a number of of the progression strategies below.
Change the Base of Support
The essential version of the Pallof press is performed with each feet barely outside shoulder-width. Your “base of support” is all the time going to be the world outlined by your feet and all of the space between the feet. The exercise becomes drastically harder with a smaller base of support. Achieve this progression by standing with a narrower stance. When you’re capable of perform Pallof presses along with your feet together, try the lunge variation and even the single-leg variation, described below.
Increase the Variety of Repetitions
For performance training, the Pallof press is taken into account an “accessory exercise,” generally performed for moderate to higher repetitions. It isn’t the style of exercise conducive to high resistance/low repetition programming. Nobody cares about your Pallof press one-repetition maximum. Relatively than push for more resistance, push for higher-repetition sets. Work as much as sets of 20 or more smooth, controlled repetitions before worrying about adding resistance.
Increase the Movement Speed
Your primary task throughout the Pallof press is to maintain your trunk motionless. Or, if there may be any motion or lack of the initial trunk position, your task is to regain control and re-achieve the initial position as soon as possible. Actually, the latter scenario most closely describes the biomechanics definition of stability. (6) Rapid movement speed throughout the Pallof press exposes the body to a greater stability challenge.
So long as any movement below your shoulders is minimal and well-controlled, increasing the speed of the pressing motion may be an efficient progression. Nevertheless, even when performing faster repetitions, you need to still pause at peak tension when arms are fully outstretched.
Advantages of the Pallof Press
Isometric core exercises just like the Pallof press are advisable to enhance core muscle endurance. (7) But the advantages of the Pallof press don’t stop there. Emerging research points to its potential role in improved sports performance and injury-risk reduction.
Enhances Force Transfer and Performance
From a movement development perspective, we all know the power to manage the trunk and reveal stability is a prerequisite for effective limb movement. That is evidenced by babies sitting unsupported before they walk or before launching their toys across the room. This same phenomenon is seen in athletes, albeit during much higher-level activities. Trunk stability enhances the power to generate forceful, rapid, and precise limb movement. (8) The excellent news is, this appears to be trainable.
For instance, a core training program including Pallof press variations was shown to enhance striking force amongst Muay Thai athletes. (9) Whether you’re a fighter, thrower, field- or court sport player, swimmer, or simply about some other style of athlete, progressive training with the Pallof press might up your game.
Teaches You To ‘Breathe and Brace’
Many sports and athletic endeavors require the skill of simultaneous respiration and bracing — sprinting, kayaking, swimming, and just about any CrossFit-style workout, simply to name just a few. The height tension position of the Pallof press is an ideal opportunity to practice this skill.
As noted within the step-by-step instructions, you need to pause when your arms are fully pressed away out of your sternum. When you fill this pause with a number of breath cycles while also stopping any motion between your shoulders and hips, you might be training “respiration and bracing.” For the reason that Pallof press is often programmed as a fairly-high repetition, moderate-to-low load exercise, it gives loads of opportunities to practice.
Potentially Reduces Injury Risk
Poor core stability is assumed to predispose athletes to injury. (10) And although we all know not all injuries may be prevented, there may be a robust case for the inclusion of core exercises just like the Pallof press in workout programs designed to cut back injury risk. Improving core stability is assumed to enhance control or coordination of the body and limbs. (10)(11) And improved coordination may translate into reduced risk for injury.
For instance, across 13 studies, core training was shown to enhance balance, which can ultimately decrease the danger of injurious falls. (12) Altogether, exercises intended to enhance stability and coordination (i.e. “neuromuscular training”), together with strength training, are amongst essentially the most well-supported kinds of training to cut back risk of injury. (13)
Muscles Worked by Pallof Press
Although the term “press” could seem to imply the shoulders are targeted, the Pallof press is decidedly core work. The pressing motion is minimally-resisted because of the body’s orientation to the road of pull of the band or cable stack. The press isn’t “lifting” the load. As an alternative, the exercise hammers your core, particularly the muscles that prevent trunk rotation.
Abdominals
The first muscle task throughout the Pallof press is to withstand trunk rotation, which is why the movement pattern is termed “anti-rotation.” Muscles that act to rotate the trunk contract isometrically and create tension without creating appreciable movement.
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Key muscles include the external obliques and internal obliques. Your rectus abdominis (i.e. the six-pack abs) and transversus abdominis (the deepest abdominal muscle) might also contribute to the Pallof press by increasing intra-abdominal pressure to extend the rigidity of your trunk.
Tiny Back Muscles
Often forgotten, many small muscles on the backside of the trunk contribute to trunk rotation and anti-rotation. These muscles are arranged between the bones of the spine (vertebrae), run between the ribcage and vertebrae, or span the pelvis and sacrum to vertebrae.
Amongst them, erector spinae will be the most notable, but semispinalis, multifidi, and rotatores deserve honorable mention. Multifidi and rotatores, specifically, are thought to provide“fine-tuning” muscle contractions needed for effective stabilization of the spine. (14)
The way to Program the Pallof Press
For many, the Pallof press is an adjunct exercise, meaning it plays a supplementary role within the training program. Accessory exercises may be programmed in quite a lot of ways, provided they support, or no less than don’t interfere with, the first objectives of the workout.
As a Warm-up or Primer
The nice and cozy-up is a time dedicated to increasing body temperature and rehearsing movements that support the upcoming training session. It’s also an ideal time to include core work. As a reasonably low-intensity exercise, the Pallof press is well-suited for inclusion during any general warm-up.
As Dedicated Core Training
By setting aside time specifically for core training, as you likely do on your shoulders, arms, chest, back, or quadriceps, you help to make sure the work gets done. The Pallof press primarily works the rotators of the trunk. Due to this fact, to create a strong core workout, you could also wish so as to add exercises targeting the flexors, extensors, and lateral flexors of the core, similar to crunches or planks, Roman chair back extensions, and farmer’s walks, respectively.
Although the Pallof press is a splendidly effective year-around core exercise for most people, high-level athletes may need to include more dynamic trunk rotation training, similar to medicine ball twists and tosses, throughout the pre-season and in-season for more sport-specific training. (7)
As Rest Interval “Filler”
The quantity of exercise accomplished in an outlined time frame determines the density of a workout. Increasing the density of your workouts makes them more efficient, so long as the extra work (or reduced rest) doesn’t adversely affect exercise performance. The Pallof press doesn’t create excessive fatigue in muscles commonly targeted by traditional resistance training.
Due to this fact, it could be an ideal “filler” exercise. Take among the two or three minutes you’d typically rest passively between sets of bench presses, rows, or some other exercise, and hit a set of Pallof presses. By supersetting the Pallof press with one other exercise, you’ll increase the efficiency of your workout and keep your mind (and body) engaged throughout your entire training session.
Pallof Press Variations
The Pallof press may be modifiable in countless ways. Below, discover a beginner-friendly version of the Pallof press, followed by three relatively more advanced modifications.
Half-Kneeling Pallof Press
To cut back the problem of the Pallof press, try the “half-kneeling” position. Place your inside knee (the leg closest to the band or cable stack) on the ground and bend your outside leg 90-degrees on the knee and hip. Place your front foot flat on the ground. (1)
From this position, brace your midsection and perform the Pallof press with typical pressing technique. Whenever you switch sides, be sure you switch leg positions — the leg closest to the resistance is on the bottom and your opposite foot is flat on the ground.
Lunge-Position Pallof Press
Performing the Pallof press in a lunge stance increases the problem by narrowing your base of support. (1) Along with your outside leg in front, drop right into a narrow lunge position, brace, then perform the Pallof press with standard “press and pause” form.
Be sure you keep your outside knee pointing straight ahead, as tension from the band or cable will attempt to “unravel” your body. Don’t allow your knee to collapse inward. Whenever you switch sides, switch lead legs and repeat the lunge position.
Single-Leg Pallof Press
The only-leg Pallof press is performed standing on the skin leg — The leg farthest from the anchor point of the band or the cable stack. By performing the exercise on one leg, the single-leg Pallof press increases training demand on the lateral hip muscles, namely the gluteus medius. (4)
You may even need to forestall your foot and ankle from caving inward (“pronating”) under the pull of the band. To get the best training effect from the foot and ankle complex, perform in minimalist shoes and even barefoot.
Chaos Pallof Press
To further progress the Pallof press, increase the reactive demand of the exercise by adding a lightweight weight to the middle of the resistance band setup (demonstrated within the video). Make sure the load is secured in place, so it might’t slide up and down the length of the band.
Performing the “press” portion rapidly will create oscillating movements of the load plate. Your core muscles might be forced to contend with the added, and somewhat unpredictable, challenge of the bouncing plate. Hold the paused position to regain core control before continuing repetitions.
FAQs
Why are there so many Pallof press variations?
Core stability may be conceptualized as a function of capability (i.e. strength, power, endurance) and control (i.e. coordination). Increasing resistance or adding extra sets and repetitions to core stability exercises primarily improves the core’s capability. To enhance control, modifications that increase the technical difficulty of the exercise are indicated. That’s, we’d like to progress the complexity of the exercise. (5)
We are able to increase the complexity of the Pallof press in some ways. These include, but usually are not limited to, decreasing the footprint or “base of support” (as within the lunge-position and single-leg variations), increasing the movement speed, adding instability by standing on a balance pad, or incorporating a reactive challenge (as within the chaos Pallof press). So long as you adhere to the essential movement principles and technique guidelines, you might be only limited by your creativity when developing variations of the Pallof press.
Should I exploit a cable stack or a resistance band for the Pallof press?
Equipment availability and private preference needs to be the important thing determinants of whether to make use of a cable stack or a resistance band. Assuming each can be found, consider the professionals and cons of every.
In comparison with bands, the cable stack allows for more consistent external resistance and provides the power to regulate loading in smaller, more quantifiable increments. But low-quality or poorly maintained cable stacks can feel rough and friction within the machine can negatively affect the resistance throughout the exercise.
Elastic bands are inexpensive and convenient. They’re higher than cables for training at high speeds because of minimal inertial forces. Like cable stacks, elastic bands allow for modification of the resistance, but you’ll need to either change out resistance bands to accommodate you desired resistance level or arrange closer or farther from the anchor point to regulate the band’s stretch.
On account of the elastic nature of the resistance band, it can apply more resistance when your arms are fully outstretched than when your arms are pulled in. That’s, expect a more dramatic resistance curve with resistance bands — At the toughest a part of the movement, the demand is in your trunk is even greater. This feature may introduce a bottleneck effect: It could limit the resistance used ,in addition to your ability to progress to thicker resistance bands.
How often should I perform the Pallof press?
When programmed for injury prevention or athletic performance enhancement, core training is often performed at moderate to high frequencies with no less than two sessions per week and as many as seven days per week. (9)(12)
To perform this, complete a few sets throughout the warm-up on your every day workout, or designate two or three core-focused sessions per week to finish three to 6 sets of the Pallof Press per session.
Make Room for Anti-Rotation in Your Exercise Rotation
Since its introduction, the Pallof press has turn out to be a up to date classic exercise. It builds rotational strength and enhances trunk stability. And it would even boost athletic performance and reduce injury risk. Remember, to attain meaningful advantages, consistency and progression are key.
References
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- Wilson, K. W., et al. (2019). Rehabilitation and return to sport after hip arthroscopy. Operative Techniques in Orthopaedics, 29(4), 100739.
- Cotter, A. (2022). Return to Sport Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction: Women’s Field Hockey. Journal of Women’s Sports Medicine, 2(2), 57-69.
- Holling, M. J., Miller, S. T., & Geeslin, A. G. (2022). Rehabilitation and Return to Sport After Arthroscopic Treatment of Femoroacetabular Impingement: A Review of the Recent Literature and Discussion of Advanced Rehabilitation Techniques for Athletes. Arthroscopy, Sports Medicine, and Rehabilitation, 4(1), e125-e132.
- La Scala Teixeira, C. V., et al. (2019). Complexity: a novel load progression strategy in strength training. Frontiers in Physiology, 10, 839.
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- Kibler, W. B., Press, J., & Sciascia, A. (2006). The role of core stability in athletic function. Sports Medicine, 36, 189-198.
- Lee, B., & McGill, S. (2017). The effect of core training on distal limb performance during ballistic strike manoeuvres. Journal of Sports Sciences, 35(18), 1768-1780.
- Willson, J. D., et al. (2005). Core stability and its relationship to lower extremity function and injury. JAAOS-Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 13(5), 316-325.
- Huxel Bliven, K. C., & Anderson, B. E. (2013). Core stability training for injury prevention. Sports Health, 5(6), 514-522.
- Barrio, E. D., et al. (2022). Effects of core training on dynamic balance stability: A scientific review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 40(16), 1815-1823.
- Lauersen, J. B., Bertelsen, D. M., & Andersen, L. B. (2014). The effectiveness of exercise interventions to forestall sports injuries: a scientific review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 48(11), 871-877.
- Kavcic, N., Grenier, S., & McGill, S. M. (2004). Determining the stabilizing role of individual torso muscles during rehabilitation exercises. Spine, 29(11), 1254-1265.
Featured Image: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube