Contents
The exercise you can do every day so as not to lose your stomach at Christmas
Fitness
Can a single exercise help prevent fat from building up in the gut? It is true that the abdominal plank is often at the top of the list of exercises to get a flat stomach. However, its great value lies, according to the fitness manager of Reto 48, Gonzalo Martínez, in its ability to strengthen the “core”, thus helping to prevent back pain and urine leakage, improve posture and balance and increase stamina.
But let’s be serious, the first thing experts always clarify when asked how to reduce gut with physical activity is that in addition to practicing exercises such as the abdominal plank on a daily basis, it is important to follow healthy habits, that is, as Isaac Cosculluela, Fitness coordinator of Metropolitan Gran Vía (Barcelona) explains, no exercise in particular or alone is a magic formula to burn fat in a localized way. Thus, the expert emphasizes that in reality, to reduce the volume of that area, it is important to lose volume in a general way, that is, throughout the body. And for that we must accompany the exercise of Healthy Habits related to nutrition, hydration and rest.
And not only that, but for the abdominal plan that you do daily to be effective, both to strengthen the “core” and to help prevent the extraordinary accumulation of fat in the abdominal area, it is important that you execute it correctly.
The abdominal plank, step by step
To perform this exercise well, the expert from Challenge 48 proposes to follow the following steps:
At the beginning of the practice you should lie on your stomach and place your elbows on the ground at shoulder height (if you want to increase the intensity of the exercise, you can slightly place your elbows in front of your shoulders).
Then rest the balls of your feet on the ground and lift your body up, leaving it straight. Look at the ground a foot in front of your hands and stay in this position (if you separate the scapulae to activate the transverse abdominis, a greater tension is achieved when executing the exercise).
Once we have made sure that the position is correct, you must tighten the abdomen hard, putting the navel in and upwards while contracting the buttocks and the legs.
The most common mistakes
The most common mistakes made when practicing the abdominal plank are arching the lower back, elevating the buttocks or hips, keeping the neck hunched, or apnea (not breathing properly when exercising).
For those people who are practicing the exercise for the first time, the expert advises keeping the plank 20 to 30 seconds and even support the knees if they need it. But as the area is strengthened, it will be possible to gradually increase the time. In addition, Gonzalo Martínez comments that, if at some point the basic plank technique is mastered or the exercise bores us, variations such as lifting one leg and maintaining three points of support or performing the abdominal plank movement can be included, playing with the toes of the feet. “You can improve and complicate the practice as you get stronger,” he explains.
Other variants of the abdominal plankl They consist of performing the exercise with one leg and the opposite hand supported, doing the side plank or the front plank adding arm exercises, among many others, as it is a versatile exercise whose practice can be adapted to the possibilities of each one .