Want Great Abs – Try the Plank Exercise
For starters, I want to be truthful and just say that I HATE doing crunches. They just manage to bore me to and I have absolutely no patience for the repetitive motions. The forward flexion of ab crunches also kills my back and neck (I’ve got an old injury), and so i normally simply bypass them completely, which isn’t great either.
Ab exercises can be tricky. It is very easy to do them wrong, as it can be problematic for a lot of people to efficiently isolate the abdominal muscles in such a position. I watch a great deal of incorrect form, including neck pulling and/or the use of momentum, that is definitely worthless. Additionally it is easy to train abdominal muscles in a outward way, which produces protruding ab muscles and may increase the size of your waistline-very discouraging considering how uncomfortable and tedious the exercise is in the first place!
Advantages of the Plank Exercise
The plank exercise, on the flip side, trains you to hold your abdominal muscles inward, both during the exercise and in everyday activities. This gives you that trim, small abs you seek, with the great bonus of having quite apparent abdominal tone …provided your body fat amounts are low enough of course (I’ll save that for the next post).
An additional plus with the plank exercise is actually that since all movement starts off with your core muscles (at least that’s the manner in which it’s should be) you’ll be able to apply far more power and better form while executing different physical exercises. This will result in enhanced neuromuscular development, and also by extension, enhanced overall tone of muscle.
Tips on how to Carry out the Plank Exercise Effectively – IMPORTANT
When done right, the plank is rather hard. Actually, whenever most individuals first attempt the plank, they can only hold it for about 15-30 seconds max. If you can hold it for a longer time with correct form, awesome! But you should not feel below par if it seems really, truly challenging at first…totally normal. If it feels very easy, make sure your belly button is pulled in toward your spine and that your butt isn’t too high. Make modifications appropriately.
Considering that the plank is definitely an isometric exercise, you can train them 5-6 times each week or on a daily basis if you’d like to. In the event your lower back troubles you during the exercise, you can begin by performing the regular plank on your knees, and the side planks with your lower knee on the floor, top leg extended.
Start with 30 second holds, and build after that.
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