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

Ep: 29.2 Movement Snack/Plank Form Tips

November 18, 2021 Courtney McManus
Moving through Midlife | Habit Stack & Movement Snacks for Midlife Moms, Parenting in Midlife | Fitness over 40
Ep: 29.2 Movement Snack/Plank Form Tips
Moving through Midlife
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Show Notes Transcript

Today I want to go over Plank Form quickly as we have an upcoming Planksgiving Challenge you can take part in, in our Form Fit Mom Community on FB.

You can also head to our YouTube video to test yourself to see if you have Diastasis Recti or split abs.  Watch here

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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. Today's movement snack is actually part of a challenge that I'd love for you to join me in. So each year, around Thanksgiving, we do a planks giving challenge. And all this is is actually this year. We're just doing it from today until Thanksgiving. And it is a challenge for you to practice planking for the next week, you know, it can take maybe up to two minutes of your time, I'm going to be talking about form tips in regards to planks modifications that you can do and then small little workouts that you can do to help you get stronger and challenge yourself. So why should you do a plank? A plank is one of the most effective bodyweight exercises that you can do when you are doing it correctly. When you hold a plank, you are engaging almost every muscle in the body. So all of your muscles get involved with this, but you mostly will be engaging your core. When we discuss core, I want you to make sure that you don't think just ABS core is that whole center of your body from your shoulders, your abs, your glutes, all the muscles within your pelvis, and your back. So all of those muscles are what you are engaging when you work in plank. core muscles are used in your everyday movement. And they help protect your spinal column, as well as help to prevent injuries. And help can help with posture and balance along with pelvic floor. Proper plank form is going to take practice. And I want to make sure that you had to our form fitmom community if you are interested in taking part in this challenge, and also to make sure that you are doing a plank correctly. Because there are a few things that I see that occur with planking. When we plank a lot, a lot of people drop their hips so they end up with this way back. And that is actually going to put a lot of tension on your low back and not as much work within your core. So we've got to work on getting out of that position. And I can provide you with some cues to help. But one of the greatest things you can do is take a picture of yourself when doing it and see what you look like and compare it to one of the pictures I'm going to post in our forum fit mom community and look at yourself and then look at me and see where you differ. The other thing that I noticed a lot of people do myself included and it was honestly, me taking pictures of myself when I noticed it. I did not notice it when I was doing it. But when I looked at the picture, I was like Oh, I'm doing that it is this pressing up through that upper back and you get this slightly rounded. Some people exaggerate it, some people have a bigger round and their upper back and some people have a slight one. And this is if you've listened to any of my other movements snacks I talk about rib gripping. This is where you press down through that upper torso, and those ribs are gripping down which is working the upper abs but can create pressure down into the pelvic floor. So not recommended to do and it can create belly pooch it can create in some incontinence, pelvic floor prolapse depending on how much pressure system is being created within it. So another thing to pay attention to are you one who does that. If you look in the mirror, and you see some definition in your upper abs, but you've got a belly pooch, then you most definitely are rib gripper and definitely join the community so I can talk you through this. I have videos and explanations and I can work with you on this. Or you're welcome to join our mom posture Fix program. Those are two of the most common mistakes that I see when it comes to planks. And once you get your plank form, correct once you get it down, whether you're starting up on a wall, that's where I recommend everybody get started to ensure that you are doing it properly and then you start to bring it down to the floor. The other thing is let's not go for less See how long we can hold plank over the years, I may have done this. And I cringe to think about how I used to do this for challenges within our programs. But anything, usually above a minute is just doing a disservice to you. Some people would say two minutes is about the max, you want to hold a plank, but I honestly feel like once you go beyond a minute, you start to degrade your form. So something is going to start to lack. So I would say just go for a minute. And if you do it properly, and you work through different exercises, you can go 10, second hold, or 22nd, hold, bring it down, reset, go back up, 22nd, hold, go down reset, you can do that for 20, I'm sorry for two minutes, and you will get a greater result than trying to hold it for two minutes. So that's my recommendation in regards to length of time that you would want to hold it. Oh, the other thing. Sorry. If you deal with diastasis recti, or split apps, or you don't know what that is, I have some videos I will post in the forum fitmom community, or I will also put a direct link in the show notes for how you can check to see if you have diastasis recti, also known as split abs, or also known as that mommy belly pooch. If you have this, we need to move with planks slowly, because this has to do with how you are breathing, and how you are holding pressure within your core. And we need to make sure we fix that. And work within that prior to moving into plank. Does it mean you can never plank? No, you just have to make sure you have control of the pressure within your system. Prior to doing plank. Can people with diastasis recti or split abs? Practice planks? Why yes, they can. If they can control their pressure system in plank. So that is what I'm going to say in regards to that. And I do have a core connection program coming up very soon. That's going to help you through all of this and help you with pressure systems. But right now, I do have information if you want to test yourself see if you have diastasis recti, you're welcome to go to the show notes. I will put a YouTube link for that. And then also, if you want to join us in our planks giving challenge, make sure to join us in the form fit mom community, I will also put a direct link in the show notes where you can reach out to me if you're struggling with figuring out where it is. Just reach out to me and I will help you. And this starts today. So join in today. And each day I'm going to provide you with a little challenge that you can do for yourself seven days of planks leading up to Thanksgiving. I hope you all take this time, move more the rest of this week. Whether you're joining us in the plains giving challenge or just go out for a walk every day. My goal is to help you move more throughout your every day. Now, if you happen to be listening to this after the week before Thanksgiving, no worries, you can still join us in our community. Each month we have some sort of challenge whether it be alignment style or exercises or workouts, things like that. So anytime join us in the form fitmom community, we usually do five day boot camps for you where you can join us in some added fun. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you could do me a favor if you liked 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 movement throughout your day.