BOCA RATON, April 26 — If you're looking for a workout challenge while spending another weekend in confinement, then fitness trainer Jen Widerstrom has shared her advice on Instagram on how to perfect the side plank.
The fitness star has been sharing easy-to-do-at-home workouts with her followers since the start of the Covid-19 social distancing initiatives, which use minimal equipment and need only the space of a mat.
One of these videos is a tutorial called Side Plank Progression, which Jen says will help you learn how to master the basic move of a side plank and make it a foundation of a successful workout. Even the fitness coach herself admits the move can be boring, which she says is why it is so overlooked, but it's a great exercise if you want to develop strong and flat abs, and she has four ways to do it for every level.
In the first video, Jen shows you the most basic side plank and how to keep your body correctly aligned, with your elbow on the ground under your shoulder, and one of your knees on the ground. Make sure to keep a clear alignment from your nose to chin, to sternum to pubic bone, knee and heel, as though there is one line between the body points. And keep breathing!
If you want to try level two, remember the correct alignment, but this time take your knee off the ground and instead, reach and extend both legs out and lift your body up to make it more challenging. Want even more? Then extend your arm up.
For levels three and four, which Jen thinks are probably new to most of us, you'll need one piece of equipment — a chair — to lift your feet higher for the most challenging versions of the side plank.
And her final advice? Always remember to stay long, stay breathing, and stay squeezing. — AFP-Relaxnews
