In this article, I will cover 10 health benefits of doing planks (What do planks help with) & Why you need to do planks every day. So many people love to do exercises that focus on building and strengthening their core. Doing a plank is one of the best exercises that you can do for your abdominal muscles.
To do a plank, you just need to go down to the floor so you are on your hands and knees. Then, rest your forearms flat on the floor and extend your legs behind you with only your toes touching the ground. Make sure your bum isn’t sticking up in the air. Really engage your core and hold for about one minute.
10 Planks benefits that help you with weight loss
So here, I will explain to you 10 benefits that doing the plank at least once a day can help you with.
1. Planks help you with build Abdominal Muscles
The main benefit of the plank is that it helps to really strengthen and build your abdominal muscles. Your transverse and rectus abdominis is the main stomach muscles that are targeted in the plank.
The transverse abdominis is a bit like the foundation of your abs. They are that innermost layer that allows you to get amazing core strength and control.
The rectus abdominis is the outermost layer of your abs, and when these are worked on and strengthened, that is when you get that six-pack appearance.
However, you have to develop your transverse abdominis before you will see any progress in your rectus abdominis.
Having good core strength is so important, not only so you can get a nice toned appearance, but because it will actually help you in everyday life.
Keeping your core strong helps to ensure that your spine keeps its correct alignment to prevent you from getting any sort of back injuries.
It also helps to better protect us from getting any injuries that can be caused by an abdominal muscle strain.
2. Planks Targets your Oblique Muscles
The plank is so good because it is so versatile and targets a range of muscles. Not only does it build and develop the abdominis muscles, but it also acts upon your oblique muscles.
These are what are often called love handles. You need strong oblique muscles in order to maintain your ability to move, bend, and twist the way you should, to keep you nice and agile.
It can also help to get you that nice hourglass figure shape that so many people strive towards nowadays!
3. Targets your Glutes
Another set of muscles that the plank acts upon is your glutes or, in other words, your bum! This is great for those wanting to get that popular look of a nice rounded Kim Kardashian bum. However, the benefits it brings aren’t just aesthetic.
Working on your glutes helps to support your back. Having a stronger bum means when you do certain activities, such as simply sitting, the pressure on your back is less and so it comes under less strain. It also helps to ensure you maintain a good posture.
4. Planks also help you with Improved posture
Leading on from the previous point, doing a plank every day significantly helps to improve and correct your posture. When you are doing a plank, it is all about keeping your body straight with a huge amount of control.
It’s especially important that your upper body isn’t hunched or arching at all. Therefore, by doing a plank every day it trains your body into keeping this streamlined, straight posture.
Furthermore, a plank actually directly strengthens your spine and so strengthens your back, making even just simple everyday movements easier.
Having good posture is so important for a multitude of reasons. It helps to keep your bones correctly aligned, which then prevents you from getting any sort of skeletal injury in the future.
It also helps to prevent you from getting joint strains that are caused by a lack of bone strength, and so will lower your risk of getting conditions, often linked with aging, such as arthritis or osteoporosis.
Furthermore, good posture allows you to lift more, so your abilities aren’t limited. And for an added little bonus? Good posture will help to make you seem taller.
Who doesn’t love a bit of extra height? Therefore, doing a plank every day helps to improve your posture, which will ensure that you can stay mobile and active for a lot longer in your life!
5. Doing planks Improves Coordination
Another benefit of the plank is that it helps to improve your coordination. When you do a plank, you are engaging your muscles in an attempt to stay balanced and centered.
You have to coordinate your body and which muscles you are using in order to hold the position. The more you train by doing planks, the better your coordination and balance will become.
This will then help you in other aspects of your life. You will find yourself better able to do things such as walking, running, and cycling.
Having good coordination also helps you to avoid getting injuries that can be from sporting or from being generally clumsy!
6. Improves your focus
The improvements that the plank brings aren’t just physical but are mental too! That concentration and (as mentioned before) coordination that is required to hold a plank position really trains your mind to be able to focus on a particular task.
This will then come across into other aspects of your life and make you better able to focus on other things such as work or an exam!
7. Gets Rid of Back Pain
So many of us suffer from back pain nowadays. It can be something that is so debilitating and make simple everyday tasks so difficult.
Well, doing a plank every day can actually help to get rid of back pain. Yes, you heard me right! It works because the plank strength aligns with our vertebrae, which makes it better able to deal and cope with any stress or strain it encounters.
It also works by strengthening the muscles in and around your back, and groups such as the glutes, which all help to relieve some of that pressure that our backs have to deal with from holding our body up all day every day!
8. Increase your metabolism
It is the dream to have a fast metabolism. We all want to be able to eat more without putting on a huge amount of weight. Well, doing a plank every day can help to significantly improve our metabolism.
This is because the plank builds so many different muscle groups, and when our muscles develop so does our ability to burn calories. It enables us to keep burning off that last chocolate bar, even when we are at rest.
Sounds amazing, right? Burning more calories will cause you to be hungry more often, but this just gives you more chances to eat more healthy food and to see those results even sooner!
9. Improves Mood
Exercise releases endorphins which get us feeling extremely happy and positive. It is no secret that immediately after exercising we almost always feel so good about ourselves!
Well, the plank releases these endorphins and so really helps get us into a positive and happy mindset. Furthermore, when we don’t exercise, tension can build up in our muscles. This can then cause all sorts of negative issues such as anxiety or stress.
Doing exercises such as the plank helps to relieve this tension, and therefore prevent us from getting those issues. It really is so good for our mental health.
10. Doing planks Improves Flexibility
Finally, the plank is a great exercise for helping to improve our flexibility. I’ve already mentioned a lot in this article about how the plank really targets our back muscles. It acts upon muscles in our shoulders, collarbone, and shoulder blades, and it helps allow them to be a lot more flexible.
It increases our range of motion and use of those posterior muscles and the more we plank, the better this flexibility will become.
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