7 Plank Benefits
Why the Plank?
If you’ve made your way to this blog post you’re probably trying to understand if the plank is really worth adding into your workout, or just generally why they are worth your time at all. Do they do what I want, and if they do have a benefit what are they? The plank is a fantastic and flexible workout with many benefits that we will get into through out this article.
What is a Plank?
Simply stated, the plank is an isometric exercise where you create tension in the core by balancing on your feet and hands/elbows for periods of time. The image below gives you a visualization of this definition of a plank.
Planks are a very common isometric exercise that is used to target the core to build strength and endurance as well as measure core stability. To learn more about how to do a plank see our blog post on the subject.
This is quite a versatile position that really benefits you in many ways with out really any downside. Unlike other movements or workouts that can be overdone and lean to possible imbalances have a core that is too strong is rarely an issue of complaint.
Let’s take a quick look at the benefits of the plank and why you should try to incorporate it into your workout.
Plank Benefits
Full Body Exercise
As you can understand from just trying to do a plank, this is a full body exercise. You must hold yourself up using your chest, shoulders, and triceps while also engaging your core, glutes, and various leg muscles. At first it can be fairly easily, but pretty quickly you can feel various muscle groups beginning to fatigue and make things difficult for you. Engaging your entire body all at once can really do wonders for your stability.
Stability and Balance
As we just talked a little bit about the muscles worked by the plank have a lot of control over balance and stability through out the body. This has an unlimited number of benefits in day to day life. Everything from getting a heavy item off of a high shelf to shoveling dirt in the back yard. Even if you’re not planning on running a marathon or lifting weights anytime soon, this is a great movement to do to make daily life easier and safer.
Posture
Having a strong lower core allows your core to engage during daily activities, which helps tilt the hips under your body, which for most is something that is needed. When our hips our not angled properly we have a more drastic curve in our spine which causes us to hunch more. Doing planks will help you teach your core to engage properly and help you keep a better position when seated or standing throughout the day.
Avoiding Lower Back Pain
This is closely tied to having good posture, but is a problem that will arise in your lower body instead of your upper body. When you sit for long periods of times the lower core muscles tend to be weak and will lose the pulling battle to your lower back, causing hip tilt and eventually back pain. When you train for a tight core your lower core muscles will stay more engaged through out the day and will keep your hips in a better position. This paired with stretching tight hip flexors can really do wonders for lower back pains.
Strong Building Block
The core is the foundation from which we build our entire body from. Having a strong core makes it much easier to build up to other movements. Planks help us ensure our body is fully engaged during other more complex movements and exercises such as squats, dead-lifts, bench press, pull ups, and many more. Having the ability to support our body with a strong core will help us avoid injury while allowing us to use our bodies more efficiently.
Many Plank Variations
Another great aspect of the plank is that there is not shortage of plank variations that you can use that either keep you from getting bored or accomplish another thing. You can use various static planks to change the difficulty level of the plank to fit your skill level. You can also make them more dynamic by adding a movement in that tests more stability and balance in the different positions. It gets really difficult and interesting when you mix in some dynamic movements from more advanced positions. Check our our full list of plank variations here.
Mental Strength
This is my favorite one! Planks aren’t easy! When you do something for only 2-3 minutes and push yourself hard, and are already dripping sweat, you probably did some serious work. Planks have the ability to slow down time! You can really feel some of the longest minutes of your life while doing a plank, and it’s great for you. Teaching your mind to push through temporary pain is a great way to build clarity and feel proud of yourself. When you feel like giving up at :45 seconds and you know for a fact you can make it to 60 seconds, and you get to it, it’s a fantastic feeling.
Take Our 30 Day Plank Challenge
If you’re interested in building up your core strength with planks we’ve come up with our own 30 Day Plank Challenge that you can do on your own for free. Check it out and start today, and let us know if there are any other Plank Benefits we are missing from this list! Use #daytodayfitness on Facebook or Instagram .
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Hope
@daytoday.fitness