The trick to a functional and aesthetic midsection is to include all types of ab workout into your routine. Planks should be a part of everybody's ab routine, more than likely this exercise is utilized by the recreational fitness junkie though, not the professional athlete. This means that even though planks won’t help you juke a defender, or swing a bat harder, it will help you stay tight during your other exercises, meaning less injuries do to a weak core and more overall time on the field instead of recovering in a bed after you strain your back deadlifting. Planks can be used to train your mind as well as your body on how to control your rectus abdominis and your transverse abdominis, effectively keeping your entire core tight.Īlmost any exercise where you’re not moving your feet during the eccentric and concentric portion of the lift will require some degree of core stability. Most notably the squat, deadlift and bench, all three require you to keep a tight and strong core throughout the lift. That’s not to say however that planks can’t help you with your other athletic lifting movements. That’s why you see most professional athletes doing ab workouts such as Russian twists, wood choppers, weighted cable crunches and other exercise which mimic athletic movements. Sad but true, unless you are training for a skeet shooting tournament, or an archery competition, there is almost no carry over from the isometric hold of a plank to a sport full of core flexion/extension and pronation/supination. While this will definitely grow your abs and help you reveal a well-developed midsection once you get to a low enough body fat, most evidence points to planks being almost useless for athletic performance. One thing every fitness expert will agree on is that planks and their variations most definitely stimulate the rectus abdominis while side planks stimulate the external oblique. Unfortunately besides setting a record all benefits you’d get from the plank is lost once you exceed 120 seconds. Because you eventually get to the point where your core can hold you in the plank position indefinitely making for an impressive world record (currently held by Mao Weidong with an astonishing eight hour, one minute long plank). Once you achieve this it means your body adapted, and strengthened your core which means it’s time to move onto more advanced plank variations. It also targets the shoulders, thighs, hips and glutes. This functional exercise builds strength and power in the core muscles, especially the abs and obliques, as you lift the weight and rotate your body. After not too much practice everybody can easily work their way up to a two minute plank with ease. Wood chops are an exercise that resembles the movement of chopping a piece of wood. It sounds so easy! Yet holding this position for more than 90 seconds will make any inexperienced individual shake and wish for it to be over.
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