Everything That’s Great About Side Plank
We’re big fans of side plank (vasisthasana) at Strength for Yoga.
Why do we love side plank? Let us count the ways:
1) Side plank is a great way to work on strength in that bottom shoulder, arm, and wrist.
2) Because of our narrow base of support, side plank is a potent shoulder stability challenge.
3) Our lateral core (obliques) and lateral hip (hip abductors) work against gravity in side plank to maintain a straight-line position from our head to our heels.
4) Side plank is a pose we know from yoga, but it’s also a strength training exercise that we include in some of our Strength for Yoga programs and Remote Group Training. This association with yoga asana can help yogis make a more mindful connection to their strength practice.
We clearly have many good reasons to include side plank in our Strength for Yoga programming!
BUT! We also find that practicing the same side plank over and over again can be rather… boring.
And so in addition to classic side plank, we’re also big fans of variations of side plank that bring an element of novelty and creativity to our strength practice.
Here are 3 of our favorite side plank variations! (In our YouTube video, 15 Side Planks That Aren’t Boring, we’ve included sooo many more!)
Side plank dips
In conventional side plank, we work our obliques and hip abductors isometrically. But in side plank dips, we move these areas dynamically through a full range of motion.
This is a terrific way to turn things up in this move!
Side plank w/ reach through
When we add a reach through to side plank, we bring an element of thoracic rotation to this otherwise static pose.
This dynamic movement also serves as a perturbation that will increase the challenge to our shoulder stability.
Side plank w/ corkscrew
In this variation, we hold a kettlebell in our top hand and rotate that top shoulder through full internal and external rotation.
This challenges the top shoulder’s mobility and stability, and the extra load from the kettlebell also asks our bottom arm to work more.
The corkscrew motion even distracts us a little from the fact that we're holding side plank! ;)
Craving even more side plank variations?
Check out our video for a total of 15(!) side plank variations we think you'll love. We hope you enjoy this resource!
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