One minute in plank feels like an hour, and most people can relate to this. Planking has a great number of benefits, especially for your core and overall strength. So, how many calories are burned in a plank? But can planking burn fat? Is plank a super effective way to burn that adamant belly fat?
Plank is a great exercise that burns a lot of calories, plus, it is beneficial for your strength as well! Several benefits may encourage you to perform a plank every day! It is beneficial and an important exercise to keep yourself strong and fit. Read on to find out the benefits of plank and the total calories that are burned in plank!
How is Planking Beneficial for your Body?
A plank is a great exercise to strengthen your core and abdomen muscles. Not only your core but your hips, lower back, and arms are also targeted. No doubt why plank is considered a popular and valuable exercise. It is also popularly used in yoga and is performed by athletes to keep themselves strong and toned. Here are several benefits of plank you should know about!
1. Planks Make you Work More of your Muscles
Plank is an amazing exercise that makes your whole body work hard. It not only engages your arms, legs, and abs at the same time but makes it an efficient whole-body workout. Unlike other exercises like crunches and situps, which can cause back pain by pushing your spine, planks just don’t work your core but your whole body!
2. Planks Enhance your Posture
Many of us have postural problems due to, for example, constantly bending our spine and working at a desk all day, which can negatively affect our posture. Plank is a great way to improve your posture! Planks target your back, chest, shoulders, neck, and abs and strengthen them. It makes keeping them in a neutral position easier, hence improving the posture. Planks give you strength to keep yourself from hunching your back and neck while sitting or standing.
3. Planks are Modifiable
While the original plank position is a great exercise, planks can be modified according to what suits you and your body. There are many modifications or variations of plank that are even better. One modification you can do is dropping your forearms in the plank position and increasing the length of time while planking. Repeated 10-second holds are great if you’re looking to increase your athletic performance.
4. Improves Balance
Apart from strengthening your whole body, a plank is a great exercise to help you achieve overall body balance. Plank is holding your body in a neutral position while working out all the muscles in your body: your spine, arms, shoulders, pelvic region, and joints. This helps you achieve a great amount of balance which is important for your body.
5. Helps you get Rid of Back Pain
An improved posture ultimately leads to reduced back pain. Plank helps in aligning the vertebrae, which reduces unnecessary stress from the spinal region, and arranges the ligaments in the back, which prevents back pain conditions. String abdominal muscles remove a lot of stress in your back, which is easy to achieve with regular planks.
Can Planking Burn Fat?
If calories are burned in a plank, is the question? Is it helpful in losing fat from your belly? Well, yes, it can! It may be a challenging exercise but burns a lot of fat and builds strength in your body.
Plank
Planks are ideal for adding to any workout session; within a few seconds, you’ll feel like burning many calories in just 60 seconds. The amount of calories you burn depends on several factors. This can include body weight, metabolism rate, and muscle-to-fat ratio. According to trainers, a 60-second plank can give the best result. If you are a beginner, 60 seconds might be a challenge for you to hold a plank.
Even if you are a pro at doing planks, there’s no point in holding this position for more than a minute. Rather than boosting the time limit, you should focus on the form. You should perform the plank position in the right way! You don’t need special equipment to perform a plank, just a minute and a spot on the floor.
How Many Calories are Burned in a Plank When Done for 1-Minute?
As said earlier, the amount of calories you burn depends on your weight, body composition, and metabolism. But for now, let’s assume your weight to be 68 kg just for the calculation. If your weight is 68 kg, you’re likely to burn around 221 calories per hour but cannot perform a plank for 1 hour. Right? If you go for a full 1 minute, approximately 3.68 calories are burned in a plank.
If your weight is around 80 kgs, for a 1-minute plank, you may burn 4-5 calories. Aiming for a full-body workout that includes 5 sets of 1-minute planking sessions, it will burn you around 18 calories. This might not be very convincing when it comes to burning calories, the plank is not the perfect way to burn out that fat, and it isn’t going to show results if you do not focus on other exercises that are more focused on calorie-burning like jump rope and running.
This was all about planking and how it may help you lose weight. A considerable amount of calories are burned in a plank, and it also helps you build a strong core, arms, and abdomen, which ultimately helps you to be stronger and more capable of losing fat.
