Bill demonstrates how to build core stability through plank progressions. Start with hands elevated on a chair, then move to floor hands or elbows. Progress by changing your body angle, adding movements like the body saw, or lifting limbs while keeping your spine long and aligned.
Hi, I'm Bill from Beyond Fitness Online. Today I want to talk to you about core stability. Now, what is core stability? Basically, if you think about your entire core, meaning we chop off your head, arms, and legs, what's left is your core. There's a lot of different muscles in there, not just the abs, but also the chest, the upper back, the lower back, The whole different parts of the abdominal wall, and even the glutes. Now, all of these play a role in how we are able to stabilize and move our spine. So with that said, I want to show you an exercise today and several variations of it. And this exercise is called the plank. Now, you may have heard of the plank before, and I bet you didn't know that there are hundreds of different ways to do this. Now, sometimes it can be too hard or too easy, so there's different ways to progress it. What I want you to think about is the more vertical you are, then the easier the exercise is going to be. And as you get more parallel to the floor, that's going to make the exercise more challenging. So that's the first thing you can think about when you see these different variations. From there, we add different movements. So without further ado, I'd like to show you those 3 versions. You want to make sure that you maintain a nice long spine and long neck. You can elevate the hands onto a chair or a couch. You can put the hands down on the floor, or you can make it even more challenging by getting down on your elbows. No matter which position you choose, make sure to maintain that good spinal posture. From there, you can start to add body movement. The body movement here is called a body saw, where we move forward and backwards. You can also move rotationally here, but again, Make sure that you're maintaining a flat spine and a long neck while you do it. Finally, you can add limb movement. So here I'm moving my arms, and you can also move your legs. I hope you found this helpful. Please let me know in the comments how it went for you, and until next time, live healthy.
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