Plank Pose: Your Ticket to Power and Grace
Plank Pose: Your Ticket to Power and Grace BY ANNIE CARPENTER | JAN 4, 2013 Plank is a truly foundational pose. It teaches you to hold yourself together—like a sturdy wooden plank—giving you the power you need for complex poses and the grace to glide with ease through transitions between poses. Plank will build your abdominal strength; you might even find yourself shaking as you practice it. It can strengthen your arms and keep your wrists supple and healthy. If you practice this pose, over time your upper back and neck posture will improve, and you’ll create support for your lower back as you learn to engage your abdominals. But in order to experience these benefits, it’s important to work toward creating a well-aligned Plank Pose. To get there, use the yogic tool of self-inquiry. Assess your habitual postural patterns in daily life and begin to notice how they affect you in Plank. By becoming aware of patterns that aren’t beneficial, you can apply the appropriate alignment principl...