How to do the Side Plank
Step by step
- Lie on your side with your forearm on the floor, elbow under your shoulder.
- Stack your feet and legs, or stagger them for more balance.
- Lift your hips off the floor so your body forms a straight line.
- Squeeze your side and hold, keeping your top shoulder stacked over the bottom.
- Lower under control and repeat on the other side.
The thing people get wrong
Keep your hips lifted and stacked - letting them drift back or sag toward the floor kills the tension.
Coaching cue
Push the floor away through your bottom forearm so that shoulder does not sink.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Bend your knees and hold from the knees instead of the feet.
- Harder: Stack the feet and lift the top arm and top leg.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Core
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.