Try the Sideways Plank Twist.
When most people think “core,” they think abdominal muscles. They try endless sit-ups and crunches to flatten their bellies and smooth their mid-section, but crunches alone won’t give you the perfect core.
Instead, try this plank twist to work all the muscle groups from the hips to the shoulders including glutes, hip flexors, abdominals, obliques, and upper and lower back. It challenges the entire core in three dimensions and integrates multiple muscle groups.
Exercise:
1. Start in a sideways plank position (see photo) with your left arm supporting you, left leg forward and right hand behind your head.
2. Rotate right arm toward the floor, twisting from the waist. Bring arm back to starting position.
3. Repeat exercise for 10 to 20 rotations. Seem too easy? Try lifting the leg that’s forward.
4. Repeat the exercise on the other side.
Benefits:
- Injury prevention (lower back, shoulder)
- Better looking abs
- Better posture
Think Three Dimensional
While traditional exercises—like stability ball work, crunches, sit-ups and floor exercises have been used for years—they do not incorporate all of the core muscles. They simply isolate the abdominal muscles. But our world is three dimensional. We move forward and backward, side to side and rotate from right to left. To train the core effectively, we need to do exercises that incorporate movements in all three planes, like the Sideways Plank Twist, to make sure that all parts of the core are stimulated.
