Best Exercise In Ever: Side Plank Rotations

Yesterday was  a bit surprising when I was scrolling through the feed on Facebook and saw a status put up by T-Nation highlighting one of my articles on planking HERE. The surprising thing isn’t that they featured it, but that when I clicked the link the main picture had a blue check mark beside it, and when I scrolled over the blue check a little descriptor popped up to say “Most Popular Articles.”

ONE OF MY ARTICLES IS AMONG THE MOST POPULAR ON T-NATION!!

Considering I’m just some lanky goofy meathead from middle of nowhere, Canada, that’s a pretty cool thing to have go on.

As such, I felt it fitting to include a small exercise I picked up whilst attending a Dr. Stuart McGill workshop this past weekend, but before I show that, i have a cool story.

Stu and I are going to be headlining a conference in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in January (more on my different speaking and course attendances, which is something a LOT of people have been asking for, click HERE), and I saw him in deep conversation on Saturday at breakfast before the workshop. Not wanting to disturb him, my wife and I just sat down and had our breakfast, chatting about what the course would involve and where she was planning to go shopping.

Just before getting up to leave, Stu saunters over and says “Hi Dean, Stu McGill. I’ve seen your Youtube channel and read some of your articles. Pleasure to meet you.”

What the hell just happened? The worlds leading spinal researcher knows who I am and has seen my stuff? Is this real life? Am I stuck in the Matrix?

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I stammered out that I hoped I was doing things somewhat alright in the videos and not making his eyes bleed, we chatted about travel and how it’s always perceived as glamorous (when in reality it’s only seeing airports, hotels and venues). Stu was a very personable, approachable, and engaging speaker the entire weekend, which is awesome to see from someone who has the reputation he has.

The workshop was all about re-engineering spinal control and health for those who have a history of low back pain, as well as how to work with those who are athletic and needing speed and strength without exploding their spines, so it was an excellent blend of remedial and advanced exercise concepts.

One of these exercises ties in nicely with the plank article mentioned earlier. This involves maintaining a stable and stiff spine with the ribs locked to the movement of the pelvis while rotating from one side to the other.

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Some key things to consider when doing this is making sure you do the movement from the hips and not from the spine. The hips and shoulders should rotate as one fixed unit, not having the hips rotate first and then the shoulders come along for the ride eventually. Breathing should be forceful and laboured, but still possible, sort of like when the new Sport Illustrated Swimsuit edition comes out or they televise the Victorias Secret runway shows.

The feet should rotate on the toes and not wind up stacked on top of each other, and the entire movement should feel like a personal war on creating more tension and control. It’s not an entry level kind of exercise, and takes a lot of spinal control and core strength to be able to do properly, so don’t take this bad boy lightly. You gotta get after it with some intensity and dedication, not the level of enthusiasm shared with seasonal candles and warm blankets. We’re talking SCORCHED EARTH in the best approximation of Les Grossman.

Also, I just wanted to give a shout out and public congratulations to my buddy Tony Gentilcore for getting engaged this weekend. I remember when he was just starting to date her, hanging out with her when they came to Edmonton, and also seeing her sporadically when I went to Boston for a workshop as she was in the midst of prepping for her PhD defence, but each time I saw Lisa and Tony together, it was easy to see they were a perfect match and would eventually get married. Congrats guys.