Target Areas: Chest, arms, core, thighs
Practical Benefits: Increase core strength and endurance to improve posture, which helps take the pressure out of the lower back and reduce lower back pain. This also helps to increase your cardiovascular endurance and your body’s ability to stabilize itself.
Technique:
1. Balance on hands and toes with shoulders over hands, forming a straight line with your body from heels to head.
2. Arm muscles engaged with a slight bend to the elbows to prevent locking out.
3. Squeeze the base of the palms toward the feet to engage the core.
4. Toes four inches apart, squeezing toward one another to engage inner thighs.
5. Shoulders away from the head, neck straight and long, and gaze straight down.
6. Hold for 30 seconds – 3 minutes
Tips: If you start to feel your core failing and your lower back begins to arch, take your knees down. You risk injury to your lower back by continuing plank with an arched back.
