This side plank with inner thigh variation strengthens your shoulders, obliques, abs, and inner thighs!
Working the inner thigh with no equipment takes a little creativity! Luckily, we know a some great exercises that do just that! The side plank with inner thigh variation is intermediate to advanced in level, so having a good foundation of side plank built up will help ensure that you feel your inner thigh instead of your IT bands or quads with this one.
The following tips will also help make your side plank with inner thigh more successful:
- Remember it is the top leg where you will feel the inner thigh working the most.
- Make sure your bottom leg is behind the top leg.
- Keep your hips straight. Do NOT bend in your hips.
- Keep your hips stacked on top of each other. Do NOT let them wobble.
- Keep your side stable. Do NOT let it fall towards the floor as you move the bottom leg.
- Keep your abs pressed into your spine. From your pubic bone to the mid-ribs, keep the abs pressing into the spine and spreading to the sides of your body.
- Keep your low back and upper glutes reaching down to your heels, away from your upper back.
- For any side plank, if you feel it in your low back, stop and consult a professional. Side planks should first and foremost work your abs in the front and obliques on your sides.
- Push down through the elbow so as to keep the shoulder blade wide.
- Keep your IT bands feeling long and lengthened in order to keep them from grabbing or gripping (which would turn off the inner thighs). To do this, imagine water is flowing from your outer hips, down the outside of your leg to your pinky toes, as if the outside of your hip bones are trying to reach down the outer leg to your toes.
- Keep your top heel reaching away from the hip to help keep that knee strong and that leg feeling long.
- Keep your shoulders stacked in a straight line, right on top of each other. To put it another way, try to avoid rounding your top shoulder in front of the bottom shoulder. If placing your top hand on your hip or side of your top leg is too difficult, grab a yoga block or book for you to put your hand on instead of the floor so you don’t let that top shoulder come in front of the bottom one.
Grab a mat or something cushy to put your elbow on and give side plank with inner thigh a try for yourself!
Want more plank variations or different ways to work your inner thighs? Schedule your free 90 minute consultation.
Addie Kelzer is a certified personal trainer and nutrition consultant. She believes that by making fitness and good food practical, her clients will hold the power to positively change their health and the health of those closest to them.