Follow the Plank to a strong stomach

Forget all those infomercials that promise six-pack abs. If you want a great way to strengthen and tone your abdominal muscles that will cost you only sweat

Plank exercise

Forget all those infomercials that promise six-pack abs.
If you want a great way to strengthen and tone your abdominal muscles that will cost you only sweat and effort, try doing The Plank.
Sit-ups, ab crunches and even using exercise balls for sit-ups are well-known, effective ab exercises, but the plank is is arguably the best.
To get started, lay face down on the floor or use an exercise mat or other flat surface. You can do them comfortably most places.
Place the elbows and forearms underneath your chest. Prop yourself up to form a bridge using your toes and forearms and keep your back flat and hips parallel to the ground.
It's important to keep your back in a flat alignment - don't let it sag or prop up too high. Looking straight ahead will help you keep your back straight
Basically, you're lifting yourself up to a parallel position and supporting yourself.
It doesn't sound that hard, but try holding that position for 1-2 minutes at a time. It will give your abs a great workout.
The Plank not only works strength, but will help build your muscle endurance.
To make this even harder, try side planks in which you prop yourself up from the side on one arm, using similar principles of the flat plank.
I recommend doing two or three sets for as long as you can go to start. After you've gained strength in these, then start trying to do three sets for 1 1-2 minutes each and then increase the time as you get better at them.
The core is at the center of everything we do and there aren't many better exercises for it than the plank.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen's blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people's lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.net

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Source : http://www.athomefitness.com/blog/2011/03/07/follow-the-plank-to-a-strong-stomach/

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Commonly question about Follow the Plank to a strong stomach

Question :

Am I on my way to a six pack? Can you give advice specialized for a teen track runner?

These are the exercises I, a 15 year old male with quite a bit of baby fat, do six days a week, sometimes twice a day:
100 sit ups
50 sit ups with legs resting towards right
50 sit ups with legs resting towards left
50 leg ups
50 sit ups with alternating motions of hands moving within legs and then spread out besides legs (in and and out movements)
50 arm crossing movements with legs up, touching from leg to leg
50 hand-to-feet movements up and down,
50 bicycles,
50 sit ups with knees down and body spread out,
one plank for three minutes,
and then finally I might do supermans from 30sec to a minute.

These ab exercises were reccomended by one of my track coaches, and I do them after practice with the team. I need advice on getting a good core, because a strong core will enable me to run faster. Please help.

Another one of my concerns: one, my diet. It s the holidays, and everyone knows it s hard to resist mom s homeade cookies. I just pigged out on 4 chocolate-chip cookies and one or two chocolate covered cherries. Is this going to hurt me badly? What are the foods that I should be eating? I try to eat fruits such as bananas.

What are the health benefits of lettuce? I heard that it is 75% water. Is it really that beneficiary to running faster? I always avoid it when making a chicken sandwhich.

Will carrots help on my quest to run faster? In school, the steamed carrots always look DISGUSTING, so I try to force myself to eat them, but I just can t do it. Is this bad? I try to eat cold cut carrots because they are a lot more tastier. Is there really a difference in the nutritional value of steamed carrots and baby carrots?

How can I stop myself from overeating? I know about water....

And finally, since it s vacation, what do I do immediately following ab workouts? Today, right after I did them, I sat on the couch. I felt like it was the wrong thing to do. Is there something you should do right after doing ab exercises?

Ya know how if you pull on your ear lobe for ten years, it will get reaaaaly stretchy? Well, if you kinda push out your stomach making yourself look like a pregnant woman, (ya, I know, it s kind of demented, but sometimes entertainers might do it to make others laugh) will your skin get stretched out within a couple of years, along with internal muscle damage possibly? Just curious.

Well, thank you for your time, I appreciate anyone who can answer my question COMPLETELY without making me sound stupid, like I have bigorexia or something.

Answer :
Well i will try to answer this the best i can since no one has posted anything for 10 hours. lol. And No eating Cookies or Chocolate Covered Cherries will not hurt you, Why?? because it is just one time you ate them. Meaning 1 day, now if you ate them day after day, then you would start seeing the wrong results. But it is not wrong to eat cookies or anything.

The Foods you should be Eating are foods with Protein if your a Sprinter or Distance Runner.Eat Lots of Foods with Carbohydrates if your a Sprinter and if your a distance runner, Eat some carbohydrates but not very much. You should be eating Banana s, Strawberries, Cherries, Blueberries, Apples, Carrots, Pretty much anything healthy because all of them have effects on your performance..But not like TONS of them..Banana s are for Iron, which can give you a lot of energy, and Cherries & Strawberries can reduce Muscle Soreness and Speed up your recovery, allowing you to train again faster after a hard workout the day before..Carrots, idk what they do for you though.

Lettuce idk why you would eat lettuce when you can just drink water, lol. I dont think there is really any benefit there, but i eat it with salads. I dont think there is a difference between steamed and cold carrots because, its the same carrot, just heated up..and some people like them better hot. Really its just a matter of which you like better.

To stop overeating, Eat 5-6 meals a day, Like this:
Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, Dinner, ( Maybe a Snack If your really hungry)

Me, i am 16 and I am sprinter, Thats what i do..I run normally twice a day and my 2nd run is at night, after dinner, and sometimes i will have a snack after i run to replace any energy that was lost. and for A Faster Recovery.

After i do Ab exercises I do the same thing, lay on the coach for a minute, because that is like a reward you know. No it is not a bad thing because you dont want to over train. No i dont think your stomach would stretch your stomach out, because if you dont have much fat, it wont stretch. The only way your stomach would stretch would be if it would be stuck out for 9 years and when you pulled back in your stomach would be stretched like the people who have Big round earrings and when they take them out you can stick your finger through, it is because it has been stuck that way for however long.

I hope this has helped you, if you have any further Questions Email me at hill.warrior@yahoo.com

Source(s):

Coaches, Dad, 2 Years of Track as a Sprinter, Books, Knowing How the Body Works, Running For 2 and a Half Years on my own.

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