Oshawa Chiropractor & Yoga Instructor – The Plank Exercise

Hello there. I’m Dr. Aly Shariff, a local chiropractor here in Oshawa, Ontario. Our clinic name is called Infinite Healing Chiropractic and Wellness Center. So, one of the things I’m going to show today with Leah, our yoga instructor is a variation of the plank exercise. So, you’re going to see, one form of doing a plank exercise. But, it’s very beneficial to help strengthening your core. It’s something you can do at home, something you can do in your free time. It’s something that I recommend to all the clients to be doing. The first variation is for beginners and I encourage that we start from the beginner variation always, and then work our way up to the more challenging ones, once we feel more comfortable. But, you want to be in a bit of a triangle. You want your shoulders over top of your wrists. Your spine is nice and long. Shoulders roll down the spine and bellybutton comes in towards the spine. You should still be able to breathe. The knees are down, the tops of the feet are down. So, this is just, shortens the lever and takes a little bit of weight off of your body, while you still get to strengthen your core. When you see this exercise, this helps to strengthen the core. It also helps support the chest and strengthen the chest as well as the shoulders too. Now, one thing I will interject, we’re actually showing this stretch, this exercise on a table here. I would recommend when you do this at home, to do it on the floor on a yoga mat. Another variation from plank is with the knees lifted. So, once we’ve mastered the beginner’s plank, we come into this plank. Again, roll the shoulders back. You want the belly body tucked in towards the spine, but still be able to breathe comfortably. Shoulders are over top of the wrists and are creating a triangle like shape with your body. Curl the toes under now and lift the knees up. So you’ll see, now anybody who has wrist issues and stuff, this may be a little challenging. But, this is something that, when you’re doing this stretch or this, actually this exercise, you want to hold this exercise about 5-10 seconds. But the goal is that, as time progresses, trying to get to like 60 seconds or even longer. Now, if people have wrist issues, one of the variation could you show? If people are having wrist issues, they can either come down to their elbows, as variation and lift. Or, they can come on two fists, with their hands. They do it that way. So, whatever works well for you in terms of gym, it’s exercise. Do find what’s beneficial for you. With that being said, also remember, we’re just showing this on a table right now. But I recommend doing this exercise on the floor with a yoga mat. It’s going to be a lot easier for you. So, doing the plank exercise is something that I think everybody should be doing, because core strengthening is so important. Especially for supporting your back, support your back muscles, supporting your spine. It’s something that’s very beneficial. Wouldn’t you say so Leah? Um…hmm. And so, it’s something that I think that, we, I know that, I always do. It’s something that I know, you always talking about, that’s so important. Now, with that being said, if you know of anybody that you think could benefit from watching this video, please like this video, share this video or tag them on this video. And if you have any questions or comments from watching this video, or anything in general with regards to your health, please put or place your comments below. We’ll be monitoring this video. We’ll be watching it. We’ll answer your any comments or questions as quickly as possible. And again, hopefully you’ve found this beneficial. I’m Dr. Aly Shariff, Chiropractor in Oshawa. And this is Leah, our yoga instructor.