There has been many times I have proven wrong or changed my mind about certain exercises over the last 20 years as a trainer and one of those times was a few years ago when I was really struggling with various movements causing severe problems with my right hip and my sacroiliac joint. While I found several hip exercises helped me a lot to continue strengthening my hip without aggravating things I still needed something more to help me with the instability I could feel in my back. This is where you would often see the use of targeted core stability exercises but, once again my preferred choices of movement to do this were very difficult to do as I was so limited in my use of my hands and wrists due to an autoimmune disease I was suffering with at the time. This led me to explore the use of the Pallof press which is quite a unique exercise for strengthening the core. And much to my pleasant surprise it really helped me to overcome some of the instability I was suffering with really quickly. In this article, I will explain what this exercise is designed to do and the variations you can use to progress or regress the movement.
How Good Is The Side Plank For Improving Core Stability?
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.