Side Plank with Reach
How to Do It
From a side plank with the hips high, reach the top arm up, then thread it under the torso and through, rotating the upper back, before opening it back up to the ceiling. Keep the hips high and stable throughout — only the upper body rotates. Complete reps, then switch sides.
Why It Works
Adds controlled thoracic rotation to the anti-lateral-flexion hold, training the obliques to both stabilize the trunk laterally and control rotation while the hips stay locked — combining frontal-plane stability with rotary control.
Hockey Transfer
Trains the lateral and rotary core control used to stay stacked over an edge while rotating the upper body into a shot or pass; builds oblique strength for trunk rotation without losing lower-body stability.
Coaching Cues
- "Hips stay high through the reach"
- "rotate the upper back"
- "control the thread, don’t drop"
Common Mistakes
Hips dropping during the rotation; rushing the thread; rotating from the hips instead of the t-spine
Progression / Regression
add a light DB or pause at end range
from the knees or smaller rotation
Primary Muscles
Energy System
Strength/neural
Put it to work
on the ice.
This exercise is part of a fully periodized 12-week off-ice program — built by a sport scientist who coaches at the national level.
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