Everyone today is looking for those "six pack abs". To get those, just like glutes, you have to work and eat for them. To help achieve those abs, enter the plank challenge. Planks are a fantastic core exercise, meaning you work all the muscles in and around the your abs. Planks also work the muscles for some of their main purposes of the core muscles, stopping movement, stabilizing the body, protecting the back. Planks also include work on the arms, shoulders, hamstrings and those glutes.
Planks are much safer than traditional sit ups and even crunches. Sit up cause great strain on the back, spine and neck. Even the military is beginning to see the err in their way and is taking out sit ups from basic training, due to the risk of injury to the lower back. Good time to take them out of your work out regime. Sit ups mainly work the the hip flexors, the part of your hip that creases when you lift your knee up, more than the core. This has an added risk of injury. The stronger and/or tighter your hip flexors, the greater the risk of back injury. because these muscles go from the thigh to the lumbar spine, lower back. This is due to how the muscles attach and pull on the spine, not a good thing. Attached below are two articles that further explain the risks of sit ups, if you want further information.
Daily Mail
ISSA article
To help you get going on your planking and build those core muscles, let's plank for 30 days!
Details:
30 days of planking
July 11th through August 9th
Begin by doing a plank for as long as possible
Each week add an extra 30 seconds
Try different types of planks, there are so many different variations.
Each week look for tips, tricks and variations on how to better perform planks to get the most of them.
See you on Monday!
Saving the world one stick of butter at a time.
God bless,
Jenn
No comments:
Post a Comment