Side Plank position is great exercise to strengthen the core and glutes for low back pain, hip strengthening and knee pain. Good core stability and hip strength is a must if you are recovering from knee injuries or trying to want to prevent knee injuries. For all you runners out there, building a strong foundation with core stability and glutes medius strength is must if you want to do perform at optimal level and prevent chronic running injuries. This is also a good non-weight bearing strengthening exercise which won’t put pressure on an injured knee or hip.
Tweetables:
Side Plank Hip Strengthening Exercise [Click To Tweet]
Side Plank position Exercise to Strengthen the Core and Glutes [Click To Tweet]
Knee Pain: What You Need to Know About the Core and Hip Strengthening [Click To Tweet]
Transcript:
Hey guys, this is Manu Kalia, physical therapist and Ayurveda herbalist. So I want to shoot another video for you guys on core stability. We’re going to do two variations of the side plank position to strengthen your core muscles, but we’re going to add another component to that which is really focusing on your deep layer, your transversus abdominis, for core stability. Not just lifting up and not maintaining that forcibly while you’re in that position, but it also allows to work on your hip muscles too. So the way we’re going to do that is—and this is important for essentially if you have any old low back issues, you have hip problems, a lot of knee-related problems. For those of you who are athletes and runners, remember I talked about it in some of my other videos that the first rule is building that foundation where you have a good trunk or core stability, and then number two is getting those hip muscles stronger so your base is strong. When the base is strong, extensions all would work well.
So the way we’re going to do that is, again, this is the side position, so for the side plank we’re going to do the easier version first. The easier version, what you’re going to do is you’re going to have your knees bent till you get the positioning and the form down, you’re able to get stronger, and then we’ll go over the leg straight. So remember you’re working on this hip, so she’s working on her left hip, so glute strength, because she’s raising it up, she’s doing hip abduction effectively on that side to get those glutes stronger, glute medius especially which is essential for pelvic stability when you’re walking, running and all sorts of single-leg activities.
And the second part is working on the core. And since the elbow is bent and she’s bearing off of that left side, pushing off of that, doing a lot of scapular stability, shoulder girdle stability too to hold that position, that’s very important. So if you have shoulder issues, then you want to obviously be a bit more careful with that position, or if you’re not strong enough to hang out there, so modify the…or actually, if you have those shoulder issues, avoid that specific movement.
Okay, so what we’re going to do is, first step, remember, you fire your lower abdominals, your core. So we want to get those transversus abdominis firing. So the way we’re going to do that is take a deep breath, as she exhales she’s going to pull that bellybutton straight back and she gets to feel with her own hands those muscles firing and pushing up into her fingers. So she’s stabilizing through there. But once she kicks them in, she has to continue breathing normally. I don’t want you to hold your breath while you’re doing the exercise.
So now she’s got those on, so her base is fired, right? Those guys are working. The second step is now she’s going to raise up and she’s going to hold that position. Now, that is the easier version because the knees are bent. So she has to work on kicking in her shoulder girdle muscles, her abdominals are on, and she’s raising up that position and she’s working on her glutes firing too. Go ahead, come back down. So that’s the kind of position you want to work at maintaining the alignment is important. If you start noticing you start shaking too much, your form starts to go, you can’t hold the abdominals, you start arching your back to compensate, to hold that position, you start fatiguing, time to come back down.
Your goal is to progressively work at increasing the time. So let’s say we start with a goal of 10 to 15 seconds first, get up into that position, and as you get better at it increase the time to 30 seconds or even more for that matter. And the reps you can work up – you can go from eight to 10 repetitions. That’s going to be plenty. If you’re doing 10 repetitions, holding about a minute each one, that’s quite a bit for holding that position.
So at that point you want to progress, you want to go to that next level, which is the harder part, which will be with your legs straight. So now she’s going to have her legs straight. So in this position, feet are together. Same setup, basically. And she’s going to fire these guys first, set your base, and then the next step she does is she pushes up and she raises up into that position, and she’s going to hold that spot again. So, good way to fire these guys, core is on, shoulder girdle is working, and come back down. And control the descent down, too; don’t just plop back down.
As you get better at it, you can even work at, as you raise up, you could lift that arm up to increase the challenge. You can even work at lifting the top leg up. So a lot of variations that can be done once you get the basics down, you can hold the position. And there are a lot of other positions where you can even add some movements with that arm, the top arm, too, but let’s start with this first and you guys get these steps down, and we’ll progress from there. So as I said, essential, very, very important for athletes, runners, and anyone who’s trying to get stronger, a lot of those core muscles stronger for even day-to-day activities.
Alright guys, so make sure you subscribe to the channel, and if you have any questions leave a comment. You can click on the link below and you can go to my site and you check out lots of information there. And we’ve got a pretty cool product we’re working on; it’s coming out pretty soon for those of you who are athletes and runners. A lot of you guys have sent me questions and with things you want included in the program. I think you’re going to love it. It’s going to be quite awesome for it has tons of information on all sorts of physical therapy, holistic medicine techniques, for injuries and all sorts of other stuff we’ve got on it. Alright, talk to you guys soon. Bye.
