Spice up your plank with APPI Pilates

‘Plank’ based exercises are SO widely used in the fitness world - anyone who has done a group fitness based class, Pilates or otherwise, is probably pretty familiar with what a plank is! But what people may not appreciate, is just how beneficial a plank can be for our bodies - so let’s break down a few reasons why:

1. Assist in retraining 'scapulothoracic stability': this fancy term basically refers to the joints that are made up of our shoulder blades as they sit on our rib cage. An exercise like a plank is amazing for creating muscle stability around these joints, and this is important to reduce our risk of neck and shoulder injuries, improve our posture, and improve our overall upper body functioning.
2. Retrain ‘lumbopelvic stability': another fancy term! Again, planking helps to challenge and retrain the stability of our lower back and pelvis in a neutral alignment - this is so beneficial in assisting to support stronger and more stable spinal posture. Building more control around the pelvis helps to create a more stable base from which we move our legs.
3. Strengthen the abdominals: our abdominal muscles need to work hard against gravity to support our body in a plank position, and maintain neutral spinal alignment - we want strong and supportive abdominal muscles in order to support our posture, and our spines and abdominal organs!
4. Increase upper body strength: It goes without saying that planking based exercises challenge and progress upper body strength. Loading into the upper limbs in a plank is also great for maintaining bone density health.
5. They are fun! Ok this may be debatable…But there are so many different planking variations that can be imagined, so get creative with your variations to keep your planks fun and interesting.

Learning how to execute a plank safely and most optimally, will change the game - not only for your own workouts, but for your classes if you are already a Pilates teacher - in making sure you, or your participants, are feeling the challenge in the right places, not the wrong ones, and building better overall posture, control and body awareness.

Here are some plank based variations that form part of the mat Pilates repertoire taught in APPI's Pilates Instructor Certification.

APPI Pilates Instructor Certification

The APPI Pilates Instructor Certification includes an array of exercises such as the wonderful plank, their progressions, regressions and a number of variations. The certification includes 14 days of online AND face-to-face training in both matwork and reformer Pilates where you will learn the anatomy and physiology required to become an outstanding Pilates instructor.

For the remainder of 2020 we want to give you options. So that you can choose the training that best suits your needs during this time. And that is why we have just launched new APPI Pilates Instructor Certification dates with both online and face to face learning. 

Mixture of online via zoom and face to face delivery - Matwork & Anatomy online / Reformer face to face

For the first 3 weekends of your training, our incredibly talented presenters will be live in the studio delivering interactive learning to you at home via Zoom. You can participate in online discussions and lectures from the safety of your home, avoid any travel and work uninterrupted. You will be able to complete the remaining 50% of your training face to face later in the year and early 2021. Our courses are capped at 16 people per course to ensure the best learning outcomes for YOU. 

If you are interested book in a time to chat here today.

And happy planking!