side plank technique question

[ratcreature]

I've been doing the easier side plank version where you are on your knees and can hold that for a while now and wanted to switch to the more difficult one, where the support is your feet, but I keep slipping or wobbling and it is uncomfortable on my feet to try to support my weight on just the side of one foot. How do people do this?

In most of the pictures I've seen people wear sport shoes, and I'm doing my exercises at home on a mat barefoot. Is that the reason, that the shoes stabilize the feet? Can I position the feet some other way for something more stable that's still harder than from your knees?

Comments

[heuradys]

Try having your feet against a wall.

[ratcreature]

Thanks for that idea. Empty walls are a bit hard to come by in my space, but closing the room's door might work and still leave space for the mat in front.

[lyorn]

I just did that in thick socks on a polished granite floor, so it's not the ground and not the shoes (but, ouch, my poor elbow).

How I do it: Check that my elbow is really right under my shoulder, or even (looks into mirror) a tiny bit furter south. Stretch my body from there. Make ground contact with the whole lenth of the outside of the low foot. Have the top foot right on top of the low one, as if I were standing with my feet as close togehter as possible. The top foot also presses down and keeps the whole thing stable. I flex my feet and toes "upwards" (towards my nose), look straight ahead and let the tension go up through my body. *Then* I lift my hip off the floor.

Most likely problem is a lack of tension in your feet and calves, I'd suspect, or maybe you are twisting your hips -- this twist is nearly impossible when you have your knee on the floor, much easier with only a foot!

A mat might tempt you to create too long or too short a distance between points of ground contact, because the ideal point might be where the mat ends. Start (start = set elbow on ground) on different places on the mat, see what fits.

[ratcreature]

Thanks for the detailed description, that's really helpful! I think my arm position is properly below my shoulder, because with the easier exercise I first had trouble holding it because my elbow wasn't placed properly, so I learned to pay attention to that, but my problem may indeed be the tension in my feet now with the harder one.

With the easier variant the lower legs don't need to be tense, and when I tried the harder I didn't keep that much attention on that as on my core muscles. So when I try next I'll be more attentive to first building the tension including in the feet/legs, and see whether maybe the not slipping will follow (rather than lifting up and then trying to be straight and not to slip and wobble all over the place).