Extended Instructions for Side Plank
- Lie on the floor on a soft rug or yoga mat. Raise up on your hands and knees. Set your knees directly below your hips and your hands slightly forward of your shoulders. Spread your palms, index fingers parallel or slightly turned out, and turn your toes under.
- Exhale and lift your knees away from the floor. At first keep the knees slightly bent and the heels lifted away from the floor. Lengthen your tailbone away from the back of your pelvis and press it lightly toward the pubis. Against this resistance, lift the sitting bones toward the ceiling, and from your inner ankles draw the inner legs up into the groin.
- Lower both knees to the mat. Turn so to bear your weight on your left knee and straighten the top leg. Now swing your right hand onto your right hip, turn your torso to the right as you do, and support the weight of your body on the left knee and left hand.
- Make sure that the supporting hand isn’t directly below its shoulder; position the hand slightly in front of its shoulder, so the supporting arm is angled a bit relative to the floor. Straighten the arm by firming the triceps muscle, and press the base of the index finger firmly against the floor.
- If you’d like you can stretch the top arm toward the ceiling, parallel to the line of the shoulders. Keep the head in a neutral position, or turn it to gaze up at the top hand. Stay in this position for 15 to 30 seconds. Turn and repeat on your left side.
Or try this simpler version: