The bear plank builds deep core strength and stability and engages most of your body, but you can turn this move into a hip-opening exercise, too, and burn up your quads at the same time. This is how.
To do bear plank openers, you'll start from a tabletop position, lift your knees to hover above the mat, then, keeping your legs bent, lift one leg out to the side. You can hold here for a moment, then switch sides.
It might not seem like much, but lateral abduction is great for opening your hips and groin and targeting your outer glutes. And as the reps build, the tension grows, making it a test of strength, stability, and endurance. This bodyweight exercise targets the upper and lower body, so let's take a look at the other benefits you can expect.
How to do bear squat openers
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There is a deep layer of core muscles, including a belt of muscle known as the transverse abdominis, that stabilize your body during certain types of core and strength exercises. The bear plank utilizes the deep core while strengthening your shoulders, hips, glutes, and legs; most people predominantly feel it in the quads, core, and ankles.
Step-by-step:
- Start in a tabletop position with toes tucked under and your core engaged. Stack your shoulders over your wrists to protect your elbows
- Maintain a flat back, then lift your knees to hover just above the mat
- Draw your stomach in and brace, keeping a straight line from tailbone to neck. Your gaze should be at the top of your mat
- Keeping your hips as square to the mat as possible, squeeze your glutes and open your right knee up to hip height
- Pause. Keep your weight even between your hands and your left knee hovering; nothing else should move
- Return to the bear plank with slow control, then repeat on your left side
- Aim for 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps per side.
By holding a hovering tabletop position, your body stabilizes against gravity and resists rotation.
This is a very challenging exercise, so focus on the bear plank first, then add the openers. You'll feel this in the outer glute, inner thigh, and opposing quad as you open your knee, but if you can't open very far, don't worry, you might just have tight hips and limited range of motion. That's exactly what we're trying to improve.
By holding a hovering tabletop position, your body stabilizes against gravity and resists rotation. Not only does your core activate, but you’ll also feel the move in your shoulders, chest, arms, hips, quads, hamstrings, groin, and calf muscles.
You can break it down into two stages if you prefer. First, hold the bear plank, then place your knees down into a tabletop position and open the knee to the side. From here, you can return to the bear plank, then move to the other side.
What are the benefits?
Strength and stability
We've already covered a few of the benefits, namely building strength and stability, but how? Isometric holds, like the bear plank, force your body to maintain tension without moving through a range of motion like flexion or extension (think about regular squats, for example).
This means bear planks are low-impact, but by adding the hip opener, you increase the demand on the body to resist rotation and gravity, working both sides of the body together, but in different ways.
Coordination
While one side of your body strengthens and opens the hip, improving hip mobility and glute activation, you'll feel your core and opposing leg working extra hard to hold the plank, burning out the quads, glutes, and hip flexors. That's a lot for your body to handle, which is great for the mind-muscle connection, but also teaches the body balance and coordination under load.
Planes of motion
Increasing mobility and strength in the body is super important, especially as we get older and (naturally) begin to lose mobility, balance, strength, and lean muscle mass unless we work to maintain and build it through our routines.
A great way to attack this is using your planes of motion, which means moving the body in multiple directions to strengthen as many muscle groups, joints, bones, and ligaments as possible. This exercise combines a static hold with hip abduction, working, confusingly, in your frontal plane.
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Balance and injury prevention
The four sling systems form the musculoskeletal system. Slings comprise various muscle groups that work together within each system to produce movement and force and provide stability.
For example, the posterior oblique sling runs from the latissimus dorsi to the opposite gluteus maximus. When your slings are strong, the body is strong. But if anything within the slings is weak, the body becomes dysfunctional.
That's why functional training in various planes of motion helps avoid injury and prevents you from working in isolation.
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I recommend practicing bear plank openers if you have limited mobility in your hips and ankles. I also recommend it for building functional core strength and targeting your deeper core muscles.
It should feel low-impact on your joints, but as with all exercise routines, if something doesn't feel right or you're not sure if you should be practicing this movement, speak with a relevant medical professional or personal trainer first, who can provide better, personalized guidance.
For those who like an extra challenge, see if you can add a mini loop band just above your knees for added resistance. Don't let this compromise your form!
