Moving through Midlife | Habit Stack & Movement Snacks for Midlife Moms, Parenting in Midlife | Fitness over 40

Ep 63.2: MS/Side planks

July 21, 2022 Courtney McManus
Moving through Midlife | Habit Stack & Movement Snacks for Midlife Moms, Parenting in Midlife | Fitness over 40
Ep 63.2: MS/Side planks
Moving through Midlife
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Show Notes Transcript

Since we are discussing the belly, I want you to focus on strengthening the core this week with a side plank.

Head to our Form Fit Mom Community over on FB to see the video of side planks.

Or snap a picture of yourself or you and your children doing a side plank and tag me at courtney_formfit


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It is always my goal to help you and your family move more. So every Thursday, I am dropping a movement snack into your ears to help you and your family move more. Have you ever had days where you just your brain is just done? You just feel like everything you say doesn't make sense or is it doesn't matter what you're saying, that's kind of where I am today. I have stopped and started this episode over numerous times, but I'm gonna just go with it. And hopefully you're willing to ride along through the messiness of it. So this week, our movement snack has to do with the belly. And Monday, I spoke into a few things that you should focus on, if you are struggling with that midsection weight game. And I do want to make sure that you understand this is not to discount loving your body in each phase of life that you're in. This is more I wanted to do this episode, because this is one of the it is it is the most common question I get from my clients is how do I lose the belly pooch or how do I lose that weight around my midsection, so I knew I wanted to address it. And therefore this week, I want to focus on maybe not so much a movement snack to help you lose that area. But let's strengthen that area because it's important for us to be strong. And the stronger we are within the core, the less likely we are to deal with low back pain and tension shoulder and neck pain. And all of those other pains that come about due to weak core even balance issue. It's not just pain, it's other problems that arise because of a weak core. So today, what we're going to do is we're going to work on our side plank, I am choosing this exercise for mainly if you are newer to fitness, or if you are recently postpartum. This is probably one of the safer exercises to do. It is difficult, but I'm going to provide you a modification and you are always welcome to head over to our form fit mom community to grab a video to see the modifications, you know, as I walk through each of these, but what you're going to do is you're going to basically lay on your side and you're going to put your elbow down on the mat. And you're just kind of going to relax there. And I usually say I'd like you to place your elbow, if you were to draw a line on your mat, I want your elbow shoulder area to be in about the same line as your hips and your ankles. So thank you know, if I were to lean up against if I were to be up against a wall, my shoulder would be touching the wall or my head would be my hips would be and my feet would be okay. And what we're going to do is we're going to keep our knees and our hips on the floor to begin. And all you're going to do is I want you to press off of your elbow. So we're pressing her elbow into the floor. And we're thinking about lengthening through our spine, pulling our shoulder away from our ear. And while we're doing this, we're thinking about activating that underside of our core. And you're just going to hold it there and you don't even have to lift off the mat. This can be your starting position this can be you might get enough of a workout right here, just doing this enough core strengthening. We're going to be working the obliques for this exercise. So those are your outer abs. And if this is too easy for you, what I want you to then do is I want you to think about lifting your hips up off the mat. You can keep your knees down on the mat still and your feet on the mat. Okay, and then if that feels good, then you might want to straighten those legs out and lift all the way up on to your feet. Now, once you're up in this position, many many times people will feel their back working. So what happens like if you've got I'm thinking like that beautiful side plan Like yoga pose arms up in the air, and we tend to kind of open our hips up a little bit, they're more open, what I want you to do is I want you to think, bring that top hip forward a little bit. So it's almost turned slightly towards the floor towards the mat. And I want you to notice how this changes the feeling within your core. Now, I don't want to say either one is right or wrong, but there is an intention, where what are you intending to work because having, you know, a strong back is important as well. But if you're doing this for strengthening the core, then let's push that hip forward a little bit, or let's drop that shoulder down towards the floor a bit a little bit, that top shoulder, kind of turn it slightly down towards the floor. And that's going to really help you focus on strengthening or feeling that sensation in your core. Make sure that when you do this exercise, you're doing both sides. And I would say I usually recommend unite, like 10 to 22nd holds. Once you get to a minute, if you can hold up perfect form plank for a minute, then that's all you need to do. You need to start changing the movement. There really is no reason to hold like a three minute plank. There's no reason if you get that far, then let's start creating different movements to challenge yourself rather than trying to hold a plank for so long. So that is your exercise. That was a soapbox. I went off honestly, I told you you just kind of have to go with it with me that today. So that was the exercise. Always so I'm not sure the movement snacks through the podcast listening ears. This is really tough. It's helping to teach me how to relay movements to you through this auditory way, which is is definitely different. But hopefully I did a well enough job that you understand what I'm saying go home and try it wherever you are. You know, you can try it a little bit later. Have your kids join you feel free to take a picture and you can post it you can post it and tag me on instagram as Courtney underscore form fit. Or feel free to join us in the foreign fit mom community and poster post a picture of yourself or you and your children planking, side planking, and I hope you have a wonderful day feel free. You are welcome to do this until next Thursday, just keep planktons give me all the side points you've got till next Thursday. I hope you all have a wonderful week and I will talk to you soon. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you could do me a favor if you like what you hear. Could you leave us a review or take a screenshot and share your favorite takeaway on social media. And make sure to tag us over at raising underscore healthy humans. Now go out and enjoy more movements throughout your day.