Plank. Plank exercise — how to do it right, what it gives

Novem­ber 01, 2017, 08:48

You don’t even have 20 min­utes a day to go in for sports, and the desire to lose weight remains unful­filled — then the plank exer­cise is just for you.

Plank is an unde­served­ly for­got­ten exer­cise that will help you strength­en your abdom­i­nal mus­cles on the spot. Can’t believe it, right? It was because of the seem­ing light­ness that the bar was for­got­ten for a long time, replac­ing it with fash­ion­able sim­u­la­tors. But in fact, this sim­plic­i­ty is only visu­al: it’s not at all easy to stand the bar cor­rect­ly, and you can talk about use­ful­ness for a long time.

First of all, the plank is not a “rock­ing” exer­cise, like most oth­er exer­cis­es for the press, but a strength­en­ing one.

This is the sec­ond rea­son why it is not pop­u­lar among gym goers. Every­one wants instant results, for­get­ting about the basics, with­out which this result is impos­si­ble. For impres­sive abs, in addi­tion to pump­ing cubes, you must first strength­en the mus­cles.

The plank exer­cise is basic and ton­ic for all abdom­i­nal mus­cles, as well as sta­t­ic, due to the fact that the joints do not work dur­ing exer­cise.

Plank Benefits

1. Strength­en­ing and devel­op­ment of strength.

The main effect of the plank is to strength­en the core mus­cles. Per­form­ing the bar allows you to strength­en the mus­cles of the shoul­der, there­by improv­ing their strength, for exam­ple, in such an exer­cise as push-ups from the floor. The pec­toral mus­cles are also involved in the work and receive their load. Mov­ing along the body, we approach such mus­cle groups as the but­tocks, thighs and calves.

2. Stretch­ing.

As a result of an inac­tive lifestyle, mus­cles become stiff and com­pressed. Hold­ing the bar will allow you to stretch many mus­cles and relieve ten­sion from them.

3. Pos­ture.

When per­formed cor­rect­ly, the main mus­cle groups in the neck area called the trapez­i­um work. They help pos­ture and sup­port a per­son­’s neck if they spend too much time in seden­tary activ­i­ties.

4. Fig­ure.

The exer­cise is suit­able for those who want to improve the waist. For exam­ple, remove the stom­ach and turn it into press cubes.

How to do plank exercise

Step 1

Put a gym­nas­tic fit­ness mat or any com­fort­able bed­ding on the floor and take a hor­i­zon­tal posi­tion — lying down.

Step 2

Stretch the body, lean­ing on two ref­er­ence points — elbows / fore­arms (bend your arms to an angle in 90 degrees) and toes.

Step 3

Keep your back flat so you can men­tal­ly draw a straight line from head to toe. Tight­en the abdom­i­nal mus­cles and make sure that the mid­dle sec­tion does not sag in the mid­dle, and the fifth point does not pro­trude upward.

Step 4

Stay in this posi­tion for 30–60 sec­onds and do 3–5 rep­e­ti­tions.

Over time, the dura­tion of the exer­cise should be increased.

How long do you need to stay in the plank?

This is the sim­plest plank exer­cise, but there are at least a dozen of them. Here are the main ones:

• Plank and push-ups;
• Plank with a jump;
• Plank with arm exten­sion;
• Trans­fer bar;
• Side plank with turn;
• Frog lunge plank.

Now you do not have to take 20 min­utes a day for phys­i­cal exer­cise. It is enough just to do 5 “Super Planks” with­in 3 min­utes, and in a few weeks the results will not be long in com­ing.

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The opin­ion of the edi­tors may not coin­cide with the opin­ion of the author of the arti­cle.