 Plank pose is well known for being a core strengthening pose, but it's underrated as a total body move. YES it's great for your core, but it also strengthens the back, shoulder blades, shoulders, arms, wrists, inner thighs, legs and glutes. Engaging those areas as well as your core gives the pose a lot more strength. Learn how to do a proper plank in this post. If you're new to Planking, here's a good strategy: • Practice a Kneeling Plank to learn most of the technique first. Once you feel confident with the alignment, build up some hold time for it and increase your endurance. You can use a timer, or count your breaths. • When Kneeling Plank gets easier for you, turn it up a notch by lifting the knees into Plank pose. You can use the same strategy by timing yourself to begin building strength in Plank pose. • Who says you have to hold anything? You can always "flow" with this instead. Lift and lower your knees as you need to switch between the two poses. • Issue a Plank challenge to yourself. Try it everyday for 30 days. You'll be amazed at the progress you can make in that time. Why not? It takes hardly any time to do this, and your body will quickly gain strength and stability from it. • Turn it into a mini-workout. Pick your favorite song and hold a Plank variation as long as you can for the duration of the song. Take super quick recovery breaks as needed and lift right back up into Plank. When you get the hang of Plank, there are many different variations you can practice... but for now, let's learn how to do it. Below is my video breakdown of Plank Pose. Planks: • Lift UP and OUT of your shoulders. Do not sag into your shoulder joints. • Pull shoulder blades away from your neck so that you're not shrugging. • Keep core engaged so that your overall spine is supported, but specifically your lower back. Don't allow your lower back to sag toward the floor, and don't allow you hips to point up in the air. You're trying to be straight like a plank. •Press firmly through your heels to keep legs and inner thighs active and engaged. Love & Light. Thank you for reading!! Sign up for my Monthly Newsletter here, and follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube:
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