Pregnant Modified Plank Exercise
About Modified Planks During Pregnancy
The plank is an excellent exercise to strengthen the chest and lower back muscles.
The plank is an excellent exercise to strengthen the chest and lower back muscles.
Today we’re going to be talking about a modified plank exercise. What’s great about a modified plank is that it’s gonna work out your abdominals, but it’s also going to work out your lower back. Why that’s helpful is that most lower back exercises that people do they lay on their stomach for and when you’re pregnant you obviously cannot lie on your stomach.
So what’s good about this plank is that you get abdominals and lower back. The other thing that’s great that there’s a couple different variations of it that can make it more difficult. So you can start simple and as you get stronger, you can try a couple of the harder versions.
I’ll show you how it works here. This is Maggie and Maggie’s 37 weeks pregnant. So if she can do it, you definitely can do it. What you can do is just start in a normal tabletop position here. So if you see Maggie, she’s got her wrist right underneath her shoulders and her knees right underneath her hips and she’s just going to slowly press her hips forward and down and walk her hands forward until she’s in a nice straight line. If you see here from her knees all the way up to her shoulder she’s a nice straight line. If you do this next to a mirror, you can look in the mirror. Maggie if you want to take a look in the mirror, and you can just make sure you’ll sort of just check and be sure. Perfect. In this position you’re gonna pull the baby up and then hold nice and tight, long lower back. That looks great.
Now if you want to make this more difficult, you can take this up to your toes as well. Same thing you’ll hold just like this again. Nice straight line. This looks perfect. You’ll take nice big breaths in through your nose, out through your mouth. You can hold either on your knees your toes for 30 to 45 seconds, great exercise for your abs and your lower back. Feel free to come on down. Perfect.
One more way to make this even more difficult is to turn this into a moving exercise. What you’re going to do is drop down to your elbows and then come back up to straight arms. And you’ll exhale and come up. What you want to make sure you’re doing is just what Maggie has here. She’s staying in a nice straight line. She comes down to her elbows and again she presses back up. A lot of people sort of stick their butt up in the air. You really want to avoid that and press up. Take two more here. Inhale down. Big exhale, let me feel that Maggie. Good, and one more. And exhale coming up. And to rest come back into a child’s pose. Toes together, knees apart, dropping back there. Perfect.
So again, that’s a great exercise you can do for both your core. We’re talking about abdominals and your lower back. If you have any questions about pregnancy exercise, you can find us at ohbabyfitness.com.
The plank is an excellent exercise to strengthen the chest and lower back muscles.
Today we’re going to be talking about a modified plank exercise. What’s great about a modified plank is that it’s gonna work out your abdominals, but it’s also going to work out your lower back. Why that’s helpful is that most lower back exercises that people do they lay on their stomach for and when you’re pregnant you obviously cannot lie on your stomach.
So what’s good about this plank is that you get abdominals and lower back. The other thing that’s great that there’s a couple different variations of it that can make it more difficult. So you can start simple and as you get stronger, you can try a couple of the harder versions.
I’ll show you how it works here. This is Maggie and Maggie’s 37 weeks pregnant. So if she can do it, you definitely can do it. What you can do is just start in a normal tabletop position here. So if you see Maggie, she’s got her wrist right underneath her shoulders and her knees right underneath her hips and she’s just going to slowly press her hips forward and down and walk her hands forward until she’s in a nice straight line. If you see here from her knees all the way up to her shoulder she’s a nice straight line. If you do this next to a mirror, you can look in the mirror. Maggie if you want to take a look in the mirror, and you can just make sure you’ll sort of just check and be sure. Perfect. In this position you’re gonna pull the baby up and then hold nice and tight, long lower back. That looks great.
Now if you want to make this more difficult, you can take this up to your toes as well. Same thing you’ll hold just like this again. Nice straight line. This looks perfect. You’ll take nice big breaths in through your nose, out through your mouth. You can hold either on your knees your toes for 30 to 45 seconds, great exercise for your abs and your lower back. Feel free to come on down. Perfect.
One more way to make this even more difficult is to turn this into a moving exercise. What you’re going to do is drop down to your elbows and then come back up to straight arms. And you’ll exhale and come up. What you want to make sure you’re doing is just what Maggie has here. She’s staying in a nice straight line. She comes down to her elbows and again she presses back up. A lot of people sort of stick their butt up in the air. You really want to avoid that and press up. Take two more here. Inhale down. Big exhale, let me feel that Maggie. Good, and one more. And exhale coming up. And to rest come back into a child’s pose. Toes together, knees apart, dropping back there. Perfect.
So again, that’s a great exercise you can do for both your core. We’re talking about abdominals and your lower back. If you have any questions about pregnancy exercise, you can find us at ohbabyfitness.com.
