The 30 Day Plank Challenge

You should know that the plank is one of the best workouts to strengthen your core, which is a complex series of muscles and not just abdominals. It includes your entire body.

Many plank exercises improve strength, prevent injury and challenge all the major muscle groups and stabilizers. The plank challenge is 100 % excuse free that means no machines or special apparel and no equipment are required. All that you need is a little dose of motivation and direction to reach your goal.

The plank position is definitely one of those exercises that can really work for you even without being difficult or fancy. When done properly, this exercise can help you get to the greatest shape of your life in minimal time.

The 30 Day Plank Challenge is one of the best fitness challenges. As mentioned above, the plank is a great balancing exercise that stimulates your core muscles. The efficiency of this exercise has been proved and it is found in various fitness modules, like yoga.

The plan exercises are classified in three popular ways. The first one is the full plank. In this exercise, you will balance your body using two arms. The second position is the side plank, when you only use one arm for balancing. And the third position is the reverse plank. By the time you become more advanced, you can use either form of the plank to complete the 30 Day Plank Challenge, though the full plank is more recommended as it targets more muscle groups.

Muscle Benefits

Below you can find a short list of some of the main muscles you stimulate when you do plank exercises:

• Rectus Abdominals – Also known as the 6- pack. Firm abs definitely look attractive no matter what gender and strengthening these muscles improves the strength of your core.
• Transversus Abdominals – These muscles are the ones located at the side of your stomach. Strengthening these muscles stabilizes both the pelvis and chest. In addition, firming these muscles results to the flattening of the abdomen.
• Erector Spinae – These are muscles found on the back that in general functions in extending the vertebral column. The benefit of strengthening these muscles is in improving lower back strength.
• Rotator Cuff – These muscles form a group that helps in stabilizing the shoulder. By strengthening these muscles, you will greatly improve arm strength and prevent shoulder injuries.
• Pectoralis Major – This muscle occupies most of the anterior mass of the chest. In addition, it has multiple functions, including the movement of the arm and the shoulder joint.

Plank Exercise

As we explained, plank exercises are considered as one of the best positions to build up your abdominal muscles, back muscles and hips. Yes, these exercises may not give you 6 pack abs, but they will surely give you stability in your spine and trunk, will help to prevent various injuries and of course give you a better posture of the body.

Plank exercises have a lot of benefits. Therefore practicing them often will make you fall in love with them. And together with the benefits, you will become calmer, happier and obviously stronger.

Below you can read some of the plank health benefits.

Strength

The 30 Day Plank Challenge will help you in improving the strength of your lower and upper body. Additionally, the plank exercises also give massive strength to muscles that supports your joint and inner core muscles of your body.

Flexibility

Flexibility in the muscles is another benefit you can have by doing plank exercises. The fact is that the shoulders are well stretched while you do plank. And in addition, when you lengthen your legs, you increase flexibility of your feet, toes and the hamstrings.

Aesthetic

The 30-Day Plank Challenge has aesthetic benefits which can enhance your body by improving posture. Plank exercises will activate core muscles which will help stabilizing your spine and hips. In addition, these exercises help prevent or reverse postural deficiencies, including posterior pelvic tilt and lordosis.

Lordosis, or also known as swayback, results from abdominal weaknesses; usually, it tends to make your buttocks stick out. While, posterior pelvic tilt, or known as flat back, flattens the normal curvature of your spine and it results from hip flexor weaknesses.

Mental

Another great benefit of plank exercises is that they also improve your moods. These exercises are definitely the best workouts in easing out the muscles and hence resulting in less stress. It is proved that sitting on a chair for a long time can result in stiffness of your legs and sometimes stress happen due to stiffness in the muscles.

How to do a Plank Exercise

Doing plank exercises in pretty easy. All you have to do is lay down on a mat, place your arms on it with your shoulders allied straight over the elbows. Then just spread both your legs behind you, like you are trying to do a push- up and rest on your toes.

Slowly lift your hips to the ceiling and make a straight line between your toes and shoulders. It’s a mistake to hold your breath during a physical exercise, so ensure you breathe consistently, because in this way you send oxygen to your muscles and help them remain strong for longer. In order to make the exercise more challenging and enjoying, try to lift one leg at a time.

There are many variations of the 30 Day Plank Challenge. But, all of these variations include the daily increase of exercise length with each passing day. So, the first day always require you to practice the plank for 10 or 15 seconds, while the last 30th day will require you to hold it for 5 minutes. Some few rest days can be done in between some workout days in order to allow abs a bit of recovery time.

Overall, the 30 Day Plank Challenge workout can always be modified according to your fitness level. If it is your first time, we recommend you to follow this 30 Day Plank Challenge plan. In addition to get excellent results, it is important to Eat Clean and drink some Protein Shakes, especially if you start exercising regularly, you need a little more protein than people who aren’t as active.

We hope you enjoyed the 30 Day Plank Challenge!

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