Strengthening your midline is one of the key components to overall body strength. Think core to extremity. Your midline is practically the home base to all movements.
by Blayne Soriano, Level 2 Crossfit Coach and Crossfit Kids Coach
One of the most valuable workout moves to build this strength is plank exercises. Planking from your forearms, planking from your hands, side planks, all plank variation movements.
Make sure when doing this your shoulders are stacked in line with your elbows or hands, you are pulling your ribcage down to your hips and sucking your belly button in toward your spine. Think hollow body positioning. Keeping it all tight.
I recommend starting with 15 to 20 seconds, increasing time from there.
Second and third core movements I recommend are the bird dog and superman planks. The bird dog is when you are on all fours, stretching out your opposite arm and leg slowly in line with your spine and then bringing it back in, switching to the other side. You can do repetitions of 10, three times on each side.
With superman, you lay face down, keeping your head in line with the spine as you slowly lift arms and legs up and down in an extensions. Keeping both arms and legs straight. I recommend three sets of 20 to start!
Have fun with it!