(please note: this is a semi-serious post)
I don’t know when our love affair started. Like so many other relationships in life, it was a hate-love relationship. Then suddenly, maybe I had changed or he had changed, plus things sometimes happen without a reason, I started loving plank, adoring plank, almost worshipping plank.
I think the fire of love started to burn as I realized that plank teaches us a lot. It’s a sort of horizontal Tadasana, a great way to feel the inner thighs muscles, to activate all the way through your legs, feet and ankles, a way, of course, to tone the deep core, but also to open up the shoulders and feel the effect of lowering and integrating the shoulder blades towards the hips.
But what really made me go wild about Phalakasana was the mental thing when you start holding it longer. And when I mean longer, I mean really a lot longer. I now do my weekly 5 minutes plank pose challenges. It’s a very personal thing, as in a real love affair. I do them alone at home and use a timer on my iPhone, or use a song with a nice rhythm that lasts at least five minutes.
I talk to my Plank when I start to shake, I breath deeply in my Plank when things really start going awkward, I make some other noises when it gets really hard. And in the end I release to my mat, still not believing that I made it.
I now teach it a lot during my classes, with all sort of variations, Vasisthasana, feet lifts, etc. I hope everyone understands the value of this rather unspectacular pose that is much more than just a transition in your Vinyasa!
