I tried the 'Rock The Boat' TikTok fitness challenge that's gone viral — and I understand why a personal trainer doesn't want beginners to try it

• The "Rock the Boat" plank-based challenge has been trending on fitness TikTok.
• I tried it, and the hardest part was plank jacks while doing push-ups.

TikTokers are uploading videos of themselves doing the "Rock the Boat" challenge, a short circuit exercise routine that includes plank jacks and shoulder taps.

Videos under the hashtag #rocktheboatchallenge currently have 23.3 million views. Fitness influencer Krissy Cela's attempt at the challenge has 4.4 million views alone.

The challenge, set to "Grab Da Wall and Rock Da Boat" by 504 Boyz, starts in a high plank position, followed by four shoulder taps, six mountain climbers, and then push-ups while doing plank jacks until the music ends.

I tried the challenge and found it wasn't for beginners, and personal trainer Luke Worthington told me that it could potentially result in injury if people aren't careful.

The push-up plank jacks were the hardest part

I am no newbie to strength training and general fitness, having worked out six times a week for years. I regularly do push-ups, planks, and shoulder taps in my training, but I don't often do mountain climbers, and I'd never tried plank jacks while doing push-ups.

I was intrigued by the challenge, so I decided to set my phone up to record and give it a go.

I made sure to start in a solid plank, pushing up through the shoulder blades with my core and glutes tight. The shoulder taps and mountain climbers were fine, but the challenging bit was the plank jacks while doing push-ups.

As I was doing it, I could feel that my push-up form wasn't on point (which I saw when I watched the video back), and it wasn't a controlled movement.

Put it this way, I was glad the challenge wasn't any longer, because I don't think I'd be able to do very many.

Planks are more advanced than many people think

The "Rock the Boat challenge" is a full body exercise, mainly working the core and shoulders.

"The challenge is essentially holding a plank position whilst moving the limbs around that stationary torso," Worthington said. "To do this effectively requires both high levels of core strength but also strength endurance, both of which are important aspects of physical fitness."

While he believes anything that gets people moving is a good thing, he said the challenge needs to be done safely and could result in injury for beginners.

Contrary to what many people believe, a plank is an advanced exercise, Worthington said: "It requires us to support our bodyweight in a prone (face down) position, this means that our bodyweight is acting at 90 degrees to the spine (we call this 'shear force')."

Decreasing stability by moving the limbs makes the movement significantly more challenging.

It's an 'advanced' challenge with significant injury risk

If you don't have adequate core strength or your muscles fatigue, the lumbar spine (low back) is immediately put into a very vulnerable position of hyper-extension, making it very susceptible to injury, Worthington said.

The challenge is "very advanced" with a moderate to high injury risk, according to Worthington.

"If performed well, it can absolutely play a part in building core strength, but if performed incorrectly or by someone not conditioned enough to manage those levels of shear force, it has the potential to be quite harmful," he said.

Worthington believes plank challenges like this should only be attempted by advanced fitness fans who are already strong and conditioned.

"They are probably also the people already regularly exercising, which probably mitigates the benefit of trying to expose fitness to a wider audience," he said. "If we're looking to bring more people towards purposeful exercise we need to be removing as many barriers as possible, which means reducing injury risk as much as possible."