Core Corner – Plank with Knee to Elbow
By Elizabeth Towe
Objectives: Integrating hip strength and mobility with core stability and upper extremity strength.
Application: This movement will improve your running stability while in single leg stance. It is also improves pelvic stability against rotational forces in sports such as running or cycling for more efficient hip movement.
Exercise:
- Start in push up position—shoulders directly above hands.
- Push shoulders away from ears, so that shoulder blades are flat against the back of the ribcage.
- Lengthen the spine from the top of head down through tailbone. Maintain eyes gazing down at the floor.
- Brace the abdominals to maintain this neutral spine position, while contracting glutes and quadriceps (squeeze butt and straighten knees).
- As you bring right knee directly toward right elbow shift the weight to the left leg and while keeping the left hip engaged so the pelvis does shift left or right or drop.
- Return the right leg to the starting position, shift the weight to the right leg and repeat with the other side.
- Continue alternating right and left knees. 5-10 repetitions on each side
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Elizabeth Towe is a runner and a cyclist and the owner of Balanced Movement Studio in Carrboro. She graduated from East Carolina with a degree in exercise and sports science and has been personal training for over 20 years. Her ultimate goal for all of her clients is to help them realize and achieve the optimal quality in their life—and to remember to have fun doing it.
