Someone said to me the other day, “Brian, what’s the best way to train my arms to be stronger?”

It got me thinking,  most of yoga is done with both arms at the same time.  There aren’t very many poses that allow you to work the arms separately, which immediately got me thinking about how side plank is an often underestimated tool.  And when you hear ‘arm strength’ it isn’t about isolating the arms. 

Controlling your body to move functionally is never about isolation, its about making all parts work together more effectively as a whole.

So I’ve put together 3 uncommon variations of side plank that will make you stronger not just in the arms but in the core.  As we’ve talked before,  side plank is extraordinary beneficial by itself.  It’s one of the few poses where you actually get the chance to work your arms unilaterally, which means one arm at a time, that is, until you get to a one armed handstand (don’t rule anything out of your practice! :=)), I like to *partially* joke with you at times and this is one of them.  My point being, there aren’t very many poses that allow you to work the arms separately, so take advantage.

Variation #1: Try doing side plank with the bottom leg in tree in pose.

It’s more common to put the top leg into tree pose that the bottom.  Putting the top leg into tree makes the side plank itself easier.  However, moving the bottom leg into tree is a different animal.  And the first thing you’ll notice is extreme amount of effort your obliques have to exert to hold you stable.  It’s much, much tougher than putting the top leg into tree and also much more rewarding.

Things to consider when trying the variation:

1)  Make sure you can actually feel the sole of the bottom foot pushing against the inner thigh of the top leg.  This will help to keep your foundation of the pose completely solid.  If you don’t actually press the foot against your thigh you’ll find that your top hip and shoulder will start collapsing down toward the floor.  You don’t want that. 

2) Also, consider the back foot in this pose compared to the back feet in regular side plank.  In regular side plank, you are flexing both feet and stacking them one of top of each other and it’s the flex of the foot that essentially ‘draws’ you into a straighter line.  In this version of side plank with bottom leg in tree, you only have the top foot in the back supporting you and the role of that foot is different.  Here you should actually trying to push the foot into the floor similar to Warrior 2.  You should be able to feel the edge of  the back foot pressing down and slightly your big toe and your inner heel while maintaining the lifting action on the foot.

Essentially, in the back foot you are pushing down with the rectangular portion of the foot and lifting up with the triangular portion.  Recall, that the big toe, pinky toe, inner heel, and outer heel constitute the rectangle and the 3 arches in your food make up what I call the triangular portion of your foot.

Variation #2: If you get comfortable with the first variation, you should try now to remove the tree foot (bottom) from the top inner thigh and draw that knee toward your bottom arm (the arm that is pressing into the ground).

This again, changes the pose dramatically.  And you may not get it right away.  In fact, for most of you it will take a cannonade of attempts to get it right.  Once again, you’ll feel your obliques engaging a ton here, which is what you want because its the weakness of the obliques that will initially hold you back .  One incredibly useful side effect of these two poses is they will train your body to resist rotation when upside down.  The way I like to think of both of these poses are more intense versions of Warrior 2 simply because of the role of the back leg.  In this variation, you’ll find that the back leg is essentially doing what the back leg does in Warrior 2:

1) The inner thigh lifts toward the ceiling.  In this variation you must vigorously lift the inner thigh because you do not have the support of the bottom foot pushing up on the leg anymore.  So you have essentially lost your kickstand.

2) The back foot acts just as it would in Warrior 2 or in variation 1 above.

As you get more and more comfortable with this variation, you can also play with the knee positioning.  Initially, you are probably brining that bottom knee closer to the wrist.  Gradually, you can increase the height of the knee until you can get it straight up into the armpit.  Work first bringing the keen towards he elbow then work toward the armpit.  Additionally, you can you can turn that into a little core exercise.  Simply start with the knee touching the wrist and side it up the arm toward your armpit as you exhale and slide it down the arm back toward your wrist as you inhale.  Then repeat as necessary.

Variation #3:  Okay, this variation is different from the other two in that you aren’t actually balancing using your hands you are balancing using your elbow.  This version is side plank on your elbow with your hand resting somewhere on your cheek or face.  

Probably you’ve seen this before in the form of scorpion or pincha mayurasana.  It’s quite fancy.

If you have never done this before it can be difficult for a number of reasons:

1) If you’re core muscles aren’t strong enough, it’s going to feel extremely awkward and uncomfortable because your elbow tip will be jamming into the floor. 

2) It requires a bit more control in your hips because the control you elbow when regulating balance isn’t on par with the fingertips let alone the entire hand.

Now, here are a couple of important questions to ask yourself when doing this pose:

What do specifically do you feel going on in the elbow? 

Does it feel like the elbow is being forced through the floor by the weight of the body?

 If you are feeling this, its probably uncomfortable and this can be fixed with a couple of functional core strengthening exercises.

Also, another thing to pay close attention to is what is happening the in the side lower sider body. Eg. If you you’re right elbow is on the ground what is the right side of your torso doing? 

What you want to avoid as much as possible is the feeling of an accordion in the side but rather a sense of extension and lengthening in area.  You can facilitate that by attempting to lift the bottom ribcage slightly and pushing it forward.  That action in the side of your torso will facilitate a more natural balance.

At the same time, as your core gets stronger and stronger, you will be able to feel the exact opposite of the elbow collapsing into the earth.  You will feel simultaneously the core supporting the body causing a ‘rebound’ effect to happen in the elbow which will cause it to feel light on the surface of balance and at the side of your torso lengthening and lifting at the same time.  This is a great feeling when you get there.

So work on these three variations of side plank and let me know how they go for you.  Remember, all it takes is just a couple of minutes everyday to reap the benefits.  Get into a routine, be consistent, and you’ll notice the difference.