Many of you who have read many of my previous articles about core strength or core stability will know I am not a big fan of the popular plank exercise. I have even written a detailed article (7 exercises better than the plank) discussing how over-used this exercise is and how you can find many so many better ways to train your core than the plank. However, many people believe I contradict myself by saying that the side plank is a good choice for I regularly use it and see it as a great exercise for improving core stability. There are several reasons I suggest this and in this article I will explain why I rate this exercise so highly. I will also show you how to gradually progress from a simple exercise to a more functional movement to ensure you get the most out of it. Enjoy.
One of the main reasons people seek to use core stability or core strengthening exercises is to prevent back pain by strengthening the muscles that support the spine. Arguably the most qualified and knowledgeable person in the world to discuss back pain exercises is Dr Stuart McGill. I have followed his work for over 16 years now, have completed courses with him, and constantly re-read his books about back pain when I am stuck with a client who is not responding well to my programs.
Make sure you read my article from a few years back after completing a course with him to see some of the great lessons I learned – Big lessons about back pain I learned from Dr McGill
One of the very first things I learned from McGill was the benefit of using the side plank. He rated it so highly that he labelled it as one of his “big 3” exercises to do each day. The other two were the modified curl up, and the bird-dog exercise, which is also known as horse-stance or quadruped.
These three exercises, performed once or twice a day, help to engage the muscles that supports the spine by establishing a certain level of stiffness and bracing. Over time these exercises can help to develop a more resilient and durable spine to make it easier to improve the efficiency with many daily functional movements that are often the trigger of back pain. For example, bending over to pick up objects is often something that many back pain sufferers find very hard to do.
The side plank is predominately known as an exercise to target the oblique abdominal muscles.
While the side plank certainly does a good job of targeting the oblique abdominal muscles there is much more to this exercise than many realize. In fact there are three unique things to this exercise that make it a superior exercise to many abdominal or core stability exercises.
Firstly, the side plank’s unique position allows it to activate the lateral oblique and Quadratus Lumborum (QL) muscles on only one side of the body, making it an excellent choice for addressing weak links in stability. QL weakness and trigger points are very common with lateral hip pain so finding an exercise that addresses this is extremely useful. It also has quite a high degree of lower abdominal activation which many people are not aware of.
Secondly, while the muscle activation is quite high it places minimal forces on the spine. As the spinal loads are minimized it makes for a perfect exercise to use in the early stages of rehabilitation when pain sensitivity is quite high making it hard to use more functional based movements.
Thirdly, it also engages an important stabilizer of the hip/pelvis on the lateral hip being the glute medius which is regularly linked to problems of the hip and lower back. This is particularly useful with problems like lateral pelvic tilt where there is a significant weakness on one side of the body. Some variations do a better job of this than others which I will explain shortly.
6 Variations Of The Side Plank
There are several variations of the side plank that you can watch in the video below. I show you 6 variations you can try in order of easiest to hardest.
While the more advanced versions are much more challenging and provide significantly greater muscle tension and activation, I often find the simplest one is the best for most people.
Kneeling Side Plank
I rate this exercise as the "best" version of the side plank yet most people laugh at me when I say that. They greatly underestimate how valuable this exercise can be for they think it is does not too much for the muscle tension is nowhere near the level of the harder versions.
What they fail to understand is that this version has a close relationship with how the muscles work in combination with the glutes and other hip muscles during movements of squats and bending as it uses the hip-hinge movement.
The glutes in particular can be activated quite strongly during this movement which is difficult to do in the static versions. If is usually during the movements of squat and bending that injuries to the lower back and hip occur so developing your skill and strength with this is vital. This can be a great exercise for those with lateral pelvic tilt where the weakness in the glutes is significant and very difficult to work with.
This is even more important for someone suffering with back or hip pain where we know this is an obvious weakness surrounding the core. The best part about this is it also avoids excessive flexion or extension of the spine as the side on position limits any movement. This is helpful in the beginning when trying to find exercises that provide strength with the least amount of risk so you do not aggravate anything.
For this reason I regularly use this exercise in the early stages with people with back pain and ongoing during their program when trying to teach deadlift and squat patterns that require the hip-hinge movement.
Watch the video below for a detailed explanation of how to do this.
How Long Should You Hold The Side Plank?
Before discussing the other variations of the side plank it is important to address the question of how long should you hold this position? Also how many reps and sets do you need to get the most out of the exercise?
Most people believe that you need to hold the plank for as long as possible. The longer you can hold it the stronger you are. Unfortunately, this is a poor way to develop the strength and endurance of the muscles you are trying to target. Once again Dr McGill completed stacks of research into this to determine what is the optimal length of time you need?
What he found is that isometric holds of only 7-8 seconds at a time and using multiple reps to build the endurance was much more effective than one long rep of 30-60 seconds. This is due to the rapid loss of oxygen in the torso muscles contracting at high levels reducing their ability to fire correctly and creating compensation to other muscles.
I like to use holds of between 5 and 10 seconds and use a total of 6 reps on each side. This means you can still achieve a total time of isometric contractions for a minute but the quality of the movement is not compromised at all. Depending on the person I will try to complete 2-3 sets alternating with a secondary exercise like horse-stance or hip extension to allow longer rest times between sets. The longer rest time ensures the exercise quality remains high and is not compromised.
McGill Side Plank with Rotation
Once again I first saw this exercise way back in 2007 when I first read Dr Stuart McGill’s books “Low Back Disorders” and “Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance” and this was a real game-changer for me working with several back pain clients at the time.
Once again this exercise is superior to the plank in that it teaches how to brace during a movement. Unlike the horse-stance and forward ball roll that move in a forward and back action, this exercise moves with rotation! This exercise teaches you to rotate as one entire entity by locking the rib cage to the pelvis using a bracing strategy to prevent damage to your discs and lumbar spine.
One of the most difficult movements to learn and control is rotation of the trunk, and poor movement can easily create back pain as often seen with many golfers. Many back pain experts will tell you should never perform rotational exercises in the gym as they are too dangerous. But if this were true you would see no tennis players, golfers, baseball, hockey and we would never be able to vacuum our floor!
What you need to is prevent twisting of the lumbar spine and learn how to use the thoracic spine and hips to do the work. Dr Stuart McGill recognized this and developed this clever way of training the rotational movement but protecting the spine at the same time.
This exercise is a great way for a beginner to learn how to control rotation before they attempt to progress to more difficult and challenging exercises that are much more dynamic and explosive. The plank does not teach you how to do this at all for it never moves.
Watch the video below for a detailed explanation of how this works.
Progress To More Functional Movement Using Turkish Get-ups
One of the downsides of many abdominal or isolated exercises is their limited capacity to change how you move. If you assume that all you need to do is make a muscle stronger, and it will automatically function better in every movement you will be in for a rude surprise. To see more about this read the article – Why having a strong core is not enough to prevent back pain
One of the best ways I try to incorporate the strength of the side plank into fully functional movement is to use the Turkish Get-up exercise.
I like to think of it as the "Swiss army knife" of exercise. It is also for this reason that it can be hard to learn, but the effort is well worth it for here is a list of the benefits to your body from the Turkish Get Up.
- Greatly improves shoulder stability and thoracic mobility at the same time!
- Improves overall body stability and integration between upper and lower body
- Promotes reflexive stability of the torso
- Encourages great mobility of the hips and thoracic spine, the two areas most people are lacking
- Improves the body's ability to coordinate and enhance balance from lying to standing
- Develops upper body strength, trunks strength, and glute strength
Many people would not regard this as a side plank but if you observe carefully you will see the side plank is used during this movement during the kneeling part of the exercise that transitions into the kneeling lunge which you can clearly see in the picture below.
If you truly want to develop your strength and skill with the abdominals it is very important to progress to exercises like this. And in terms of total core activation it doesn’t get much better than the get-up, which I showed in the detailed article I wrote a few years ago that compared EMG activation of several core strengthening exercises.
Check out the EMG results below comparing the side plank to the Turkish Get-up. Also observe how closely they appear in the side on body position.
The TGU was the only exercise in Bret’s experiment that had over 100% peak activation in all four core muscles that were tested.
It was rated NUMBER ONE out of every exercise for core activation across all four muscles tested. It beat the deadlift, squats, and all abdominal muscle isolation exercises for total core activation!
If your goal is to improve your core stability then it would make perfect sense to progress to becoming efficient at this movement. As there are so many moving parts there are also many things that can go wrong, so this is where the side plank can become very useful in the early stages of developing your skills to prepare your body for the upcoming challenge.
To read more about this exercise check out the article – Why the Turkish Get-up is the ultimate core strength exercise
Other functional exercises that are closely related to the side plank are:
- The suitcase carry
- Single leg deadlifts and single leg squats
These movements are also completed in the frontal plane so the demands on the obliques and QL is considerably high. In both cases the core is working hard to PREVENT movement just like the side plank.
You will find more information on these movements and several examples of this in the article – To strengthen the oblique muscles you must understand their purpose
Do You Need More Help?
If you have back pain and have seen a health professional for a diagnosis and are now looking at implementing a series of exercises and stretches this article will provide you with many great ideas on how to do this. As many people struggle to implement this into a gradual progression I created a detailed step by step program called Back Pain Secrets that includes a 85 page Ebook and 90 minute video with exercises, stretches, mobilizations and in an easy to follow format. This can be done at home or in the gym and we cover everything about your condition in great detail from eliminating the cause to best strength exercises, even nutrition to speed up the healing process! For more information you can watch a quick trailer video of what is included.
Click here or on the image below to get a copy.
Summary
As you can see there is much more to the side plank than just hammering your oblique muscles. Sometimes the simplest exercise is also the most powerful and this is where the kneeling version can be so valuable to someone trying to restore stability and control to the hip and core. Remember the three most important parts of this exercise are.
- It activates the QL and lower abdominal muscles to high levels
- It places minimal pressure the spine
- It engages the glutes within the movement
These three factors make it an extremely important exercise for anyone needing to develop their core stability and strength.
For more ideas and information on specific topics I may not have covered in detail be sure to check out our INDEX PAGE on the website that has over 300 of our best articles. These are all sorted into categories for quick reference so you can find what you are after more easily. You can also subscribe to our FREE fortnightly newsletter by clicking here.
If you do need specific help with your exercise program please feel free to reach out to me for help and we can set you up with your individualised program.
About The Author
Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 17 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specialises in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.
References:
- Built From Broken - Scott Hogan CPT, COES
- Movement - By Gray Cook
- Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
- Back Pain Mechanic - by Dr Stuart McGill
- Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
- Low Back Disorders - by Dr Stuart McGill
- Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance - by Dr Stuart McGill
- Core Stability - by Peak Performance
- Athletic Body in Balance - by Gray Cook
- Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
- Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
- Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
- How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
- Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
- Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek