What's With The Side Planks?
If you’ve worked with us at The Perfect Squat, you’ve probably noticed we love our side planks. 🫶 They show up in a lot of your programs, and no, it’s not because we’re out to torture your obliques. Side planks are one of those underrated gems that check a ton of boxes when it comes to movement, performance, and real-life (functional) strength.
Why So Many Side Planks?
Most gym programs and even a lot of group classes focus on the sagittal plane, meaning front to back movements: think squats, deadlifts, chest press, rows, and lunges. These are fantastic for building strength, but they miss a huge piece of the puzzle: lateral and rotational control.
In real life, movement rarely happens in one straight line. We twist, lean, reach, and shift our weight all day long while bending to load the dishwasher, picking up a bag of groceries, or grabbing something out of the car. If our side-to-side and rotational stability isn’t trained, those everyday movements can expose our weak spots.
The Hidden Power of the Side Plank
When you’re holding a side plank variation, here’s what’s really happening:
- Lateral Musculature Strength: Your shoulder stabilizers, obliques, glute med, and lateral hips are firing hard to keep your body in one line. These are the same muscles that stabilize your pelvis and knees during walking, running, pickleball, and lifting.
- Postural Endurance: The side plank teaches your body how to maintain good alignment under load, which supports a healthy spine, shoulders, and hips.
- Multi-Directional Stability: You’re not just bracing forward and back; you’re controlling movement side to side and resisting rotation, which translates directly to better control during real-world movement.
- Total Core Strength: Unlike crunches or sit-ups that isolate, side planks recruit the entire core: front, side, and back, which teaches your muscles to work as a team.
Why It Matters
Your core isn’t just your abs. It’s your entire trunk from shoulders to hips working to keep you balanced, powerful, and pain-free. Training it from multiple angles makes you more resilient and athletic in everything you do, whether that’s lifting heavier in the gym, playing pickleball, or carrying a toddler on one hip.
Make It Fun
Side planks don’t have to be boring. We mix it up with variations from knee-supported versions to side planks with hip dips, rotations, or added weights. Once you feel how much stronger and more stable your body becomes, you might even start to like them. (We said might.)
Bottom Line
Don’t skip the side planks. They’re one of the simplest, most effective tools to build real-world strength that carries over to everything you do.
👉 If you’re ready to learn how to train smarter, not just harder, schedule a consultation with one of our PTs at The Perfect Squat, where strength meets function.
By: Sara Zehr, PT, Side Plank Combo Specialist
