Many clients ask me what is the ONE exercise they should be doing on vacation, during travel, or when immersed in holiday madness. And my reply is always the Plank. It engages the entirety of the body and, best of all, requires no props or equipment.

Here’s how you do it: Start off kneeling on all fours. Make sure your inner elbows face one another to avoid hyper-extension or “locking out”. Look downward at your belly button and lift up in between your shoulder blades. Deepen your low abdominals and stretch your left leg behind you, reaching out of the heel. Plant the left foot on the floor, toes curled forward. Deepen the belly and do the same thing with the right leg, bringing heels together and toes apart on the floor. Tuck the pelvis and feel the inner thigh line zipping together and the hamstrings firing as you stretch back through both heels. Continue lifting in between the shoulder blades and deepening the low abs. See how long you can hold this pose. Challenge: Try working up to a five minute plank. Wowsas!

Ever had the experience of rolling out your IT bands and subduing that nagging knee pain? Or a massage therapist digging into your hip and your low-back pain miraculously disappearing? Or how about just taking a moment to breathe deeply and finding your headache vanish? This is all due to the fact that everything in our body…

I’m posting a link to an article on Pilates-Pro. To be fair, I have not yet finished reading Professor Lederman’s paper that suggests core stability and conditioning is a myth in regards to low back health and preventing injury. What I can surmise thus far is…