Side Plank Variations

Here are some great variations of side plank. Side plank is amazing for strengthening the core four, and sometimes we need a different variation. So we'll need a wall for this for the very start, and a block as well is optional. As we come to the wall, we'll bring one forearm to the wall so that the elbow is about in line with the shoulder. And the feet can be staggered so that the outside foot is a little bit forward from the back foot.

Find lots of length in the spine and push away from the wall a little bit as well. If you want to bring the free hand to your hip, then you can, or out to the side. And notice what's happening with the shoulder blades. Can you make a little more space? Can you lengthen through the spine?

And if that feels okay on the shoulder, maybe you want to start to walk the feet out away from the wall a little bit. So you can find continuous breath. Know that pelvic floor and diaphragm are moving together with each breath. Find a little smile, and then we'll get ready to switch to the other side. So walking the feet back towards the wall.

Opposite forearm, whatever one you didn't use, we'll come to the wall and we'll check in that the shoulder, the elbow are in line, the fingers spread out nice and wide. The outside leg, we'll step forward a bit. And then find where is comfortable. So it might be a little bit closer to start, and we'll check in with the shoulder, see how it's doing. Can we make a little more space between the shoulder blades?

Maybe the hand comes to the hip or the waist, and then maybe we start to walk the feet out a little bit. So find lots of length in the spine. Find a little smile. You might feel the body working. See if you can keep that continuous breath.

Amazing. And then starting to come out of that there. And then we'll make our way down towards the floor. Coming all the way down to lying down on your side with the forearm down. So now the floor becomes what the wall was before.

And if this feels like it's too much for the shoulder, then we're going to move back to the wall for this one. So the hips are stacked, the knees are stacked, and we'll find a comfortable place. And sometimes the ribs might sink down towards the floor, which feels like a really nice stretch in that side rib, but we want to, for this one, lift away and bring the ear away from the shoulder as well. So the top arm can be wherever we would like it to be. It can be extended up towards the sky.

It might scoop in on the exhale and open on the inhale. Continuous breath here and lots of length in the spine. Great. And if we feel like on the next exhale, we might lift the hip off the floor. So even if it's just imagining that we're lifting that hip, we can go for that.

So taking a nice inhale here together, and then on the exhale, lifting. Inhale and you can lower. Inhale and lifting. Inhale and lower. Great.

And we'll do that one more time on the exhale, lifting. And the inhale, lower. Amazing. So we'll switch to the other side. Each shoulder is different, so if we get to this side, we think, you know what?

This shoulder doesn't want to do this version today, then we switch back to the wall. We know that we don't need to change the body, we need to change the pose. So we'll find alignment with the hips, the knees, lengthen through the spine, maybe that hand finds the hip, maybe it lengthens up towards the sky. And again, just noticing are the ribs sinking down towards the floor? Can we lengthen there?

And can we also lengthen the head away from the sacrum, like we're growing tall through the crown of the head? Great. And maybe we scoop under on the exhale and inhale to open. Inhale opening up, and we'll do that one more time, exhale scooping down. Inhale opening, amazing, and then find where is that arm comfortable?

And it could even be alongside the body. So taking an inhale together here, and on the exhale, we might even imagine that we're lifting and it might just be more length happening, or maybe there's a lift on the exhale, and the inhale we lower, exhale we lift up, inhale we lower, and then exhale we lift. I feel my whole body shaking in this one. It means it's really activating those core four. All right, and then coming up and out of that one, into table.

This is where we might want the block. If you move towards the front of your mat, especially if you're like me against the wall, placing one hand down, so I have my left hand down onto the block, the right hand is going to lift up, and the right foot just comes forward a little bit, so it's kind of like a lunge, but not all the way forward for lunge. From here we have the option just to open up right from there, or we can bring the foot back and roll onto it. So your choice, if the knee down feels better than we leave the knee down, maybe we want some padding under the knee, and we have the option to roll into it. Also what might help is if we inhale, come out, and exhale to effort.

Feels like, you know what, Shannon, I've got this, I want to stay here with continuous breath and you have that option as well. Maybe you find a smile, I always say to myself, that's tricking myself to really love this pose, good, and then coming back to center and we'll find the other side, so we switch the block over under the opposite hand, so for me it's my right one. We step the left toes forward a little bit, and again we have that option to open up on the inhale and exhale to close in, and then if it feels like it's a little more effort, we may want to move on the exhale. So that back leg, that right leg might extend out and roll to the outside of that leg, and we might need to come out of it, inhale, and then come back on the exhale. Or maybe we feel like I want to see what it's like to fly here a little bit with continuous breath and a smile, great, and then coming down to table, move our block, we don't need it now, and coming to sit on the heels, so from hero, if this pose feels okay for the knees, if it doesn't, then we're going to move into one of the other variations that we just did, but from hero, we'll start to lean over towards the left side, place the left hand down on the floor, extend the right leg out to straight, and reach the right arm up towards the sky, then come back to hero, pause for a moment, and then bring right hand to the floor, left leg extends out, left arm reaches up towards the sky, lots of length, continuous breath, and then we'll come back to our hero pose, so you can stay as long as you'd like as we reach left hand down towards the floor, extend right leg, extend right arm, continuous breath there if that feels okay, and then we'll do the last side there, right hand down, extend left leg out, left arm reaches up, growing tall, great, and then coming back to hero, coming to sitting then, and bending the left leg, extending the right leg out to straight, find lots of length in the spine, place the right hand down on the floor back behind you, and wiggle this left foot around until you feel like you can lift off the floor, so it might be just a tiny lift here, or we can lift as high as we would like, and again, if it's a lot of effort, then we'll do that on the exhale, so we can inhale and lower at any time, and then the exhale is where we're lifting in, and that's a little more effort, and then we'll switch to the other side, so extend the left leg out, right knee bends, right foot plants, left hand comes back behind you, maybe rolling to the outside edge of that left foot, and then coming up into your version of side plank on this side, always coming down when we need to, if you can tell I'm like getting a little short of breath because you guys know this is a bit of work, and then once we've done one more of those, we'll come to lying down on our backs, so extending out, taking out lots of space, wiggling around, finding a little rest here, noticing what your heart beats doing, noticing the breath, allowing the breath to soften, softening the eyes, sending gratitude to self, for doing your practice today, for showing up for yourself in whatever way that was.

Thank you. Thank you. If you need a little more time here, you're more than welcome to stay in your relaxation. Otherwise, we'll start to make very small movements with fingers and toes. Keep in the breath a little bit, start to stretch out through arms and legs, lengthening.

When you're ready, bending the knees, planting the feet onto the earth, rolling over to one side, using your hands to bring you up to sitting. Thank you so much for practicing, for building strength in our side planks.