Plank
PHALAKASANA
How To Perform
• From an all fours position bring your shoulders over your wrists with ngers spread. Press your hands into the floor; firm the upper arms in toward each other.
• Draw the lower belly in and up.
• Extend one leg back with your toes tucked and then the other leg (feet hip distance apart) so you are in a high push-up position. Your body is in a straight line from head to heels – this is full Plank.
• Firm the shoulder blades down and into the back; press the space between the shoulder blades up towards the ceiling.
• Press the top of the thighs up towards the ceiling and lengthen the tailbone towards your heels.
• Draw the legs together without actually moving them; this creates more core strength and stability.
• Keep pushing the oor away evenly with your palms and imagine you’re pressing the heels back against a wall.
• Look at the oor to a point about 30cm in front of you, eyes soft, jaw relaxed. Breath is even and steady.
• Stay in this pose anywhere between 5 breaths to a couple of minutes.
• To come out, lower the knees to the oor and rest in Child’s pose.
Benefits
• Strengthens and tones your whole body.
• Develops core strength and stability.
• Prepares the body for other arm balances.
• Increases exibility in the feet.
• If full Plank is too strong, practise Half-Plank with your knees on the floor.
• Gradually increase the time you spend on your hands so that you can build up strength in the wrist muscles.
Modifications
• Think about the front of the body drawing up towards the back of the body.
• Try squeezing a block between your thighs to enable you to feel the action of the legs drawing together – this also builds core strength very quickly!