When it comes to training abdominal muscles, many people will first think of crunches, which can be operated in different postures such as plank, incline, and leaning over. Later, weight-bearing training can be added to improve the overall training intensity.
There is another movement, you don’t need to move up and down, you just need to maintain a fixed posture, the abdomen will feel tight, it is “plank support”.
When training plank, you can use different methods such as continuous timing, group timing, and maximum exhaustion time.
If you can keep training plank for a long time, you will reap the following benefits:
1.Reduce waist pressure
Modern people have the habit of sitting for a long time, especially when working during the day, a continuous sitting time will reach 2-4 hours, and some people do not stand all the time.
In the sitting position, the pressure on the lower back is very high. If there is no cushion on the stool, and the body is leaned back or the back is bowed, then after sitting for a long time, it will cause obvious lower back pain, and it will also increase the risk of lumbar spine injury.
Doing plank support at this time can tighten the buttocks and abdomen, prevent the lower back from sinking or bulging, and stabilize the back to a certain extent posture that reduces the pressure on the lower back.
2. Improve the posture of round shoulders
A normal person’s spine will have a natural physiological curvature. When standing on a wall, “head, shoulder blades, buttocks, backs of calves, and heels” should be attached to the wall, with the entire torso in a straight line.
Many people have the habit of bowing their heads, bending their waists, and stretching their heads and necks forward, which will lead to rounded shoulders over time.
Training the plank, actively lifts the head up, and also strengthens the upper back, so that it can fight against the pectoral muscles, allowing the two They form a state of mutual restraint and balance, and their body posture will be more upright.
3. Enhance abdominal strength
Although the plank is not the main exercise for abdominal muscles, it does It directly affects the overall training effect.
For example, when doing abdominal crunches, you should lift your upper back and shoulder blades off the ground, which seems very simple. But if your abdominal strength is poor, you can only operate by holding your head and leveraging your strength, which will put pressure on the cervical spine.
In the later stage, there are also advanced movements such as sloping abdominal crunches, lying on the back, scissor legs, etc. They are more difficult, and the abdominal strength directly determines the training completion and training quality.
Training plank regularly, the longer it lasts, the more powerful it will be in improving abdominal strength. The speed of the abdominal muscles in the later stage will be faster, and the time of the peak contraction will be extended, laying a good foundation for the more difficult abdominal muscle movements in the later stage.
4. Improve training levels
Plank support is actually a revised version of the push-up preparation posture.
The former is elbow flexion and forearm support, the latter is straight arm, hands support, and other body postures are exactly the same.
Because push-ups need to continuously complete the process of flexing and extending the arms, during eccentric training, the lower the range of motion and the slower the speed, the higher the corresponding difficulty.
Because of the lower bending range of the plank, it can strengthen the whole body muscles such as shoulders, arms, back, chest, abdomen, etc. This improves push-up compression, volume, balance, and training effectiveness.
Write at the end:
Many people usually only know how to practice various abdominal crunches and leg raises. However, after training, there will be low back pain, which is often caused by the lack of tightening of the abdomen and the arch of the lower back.
Training plank support can make the abdominal strength stronger, which is also very helpful for push-ups, while reducing the pressure on the waist and solving the problem of round shoulders.
Because the plank is completely stationary and consumes less energy, it can be trained once a day.
For newcomers, you can start with 4 sets * 15 seconds, then increase to 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, until 60 seconds, so the 5 seconds increment, the longer the persistence , the better the training effect.
