Intermittent Fasting: 10 Common Mistakes of Newbies (Part 1) A common weight loss approach taken by most obese people is to enter into an intermittent fasting diet plan. Unlike other diets and routines, it gives a window to consuming foods that suit a working professional's timetable and doesn't hamper their energy levels after the first week. Unfortunately, newbies tend to make a few common mistakes during this tight fasting schedule. On the other hand, others have learned about avoiding such mishappenings after going through a rough patch. Regardless of the scenario, anyone entering an intermittent fasting diet plan should avoid such errors at all costs, as they can prove detrimental to health. 3/10 Intermittent Fasting Mistakes (Part 1) 1. Subjecting Yourself to Extremely High or Low Calories Whenever someone enters an intermittent fasting (IF) diet plan, they also go into a calorie deficit plan, which can prove very harmful, as your body has its capacity. Subjecting to two...
People with belly fat will instantly feel their stomach hanging downwards and putting pressure on their back, abs, arms, and legs while practicing planks. On the other hand, people with less than 20% body fat might feel tired after performing three to five sets of 30 seconds or more of this exercise.
Similarly, people with less than 10% body fat may feel their results need to be visible after finishing the plank routines. However, they are coming together but might require more effort or time. Doing a plank becomes more challenging after finishing a HIIT workout, as many people still need to build a higher endurance level. Therefore, the experience differs significantly between people.
5 Health Benefits of Performing Planks Daily
1. Improves Your Strength
If you keep practicing planks regularly, you might witness strength in your arms, back, neck, legs, shoulders, and abs. It is because you are pushing your body against gravity for a set duration. For example, once you build an endurance of 30 seconds, you should increase it by 15 seconds.
Increasing the number of seconds in a rep or the number of sets would improve your strength. Also, if you are doing forearm planks, which is the best of all the variations, you can eventually feel the forearm muscles becoming much stronger.
It is much better than forearm curls using a weight, as lifting your body weight using forearms is challenging for most people. On the other hand, the plank requires the strength of your arms and legs to raise your weight.
The longer you can perform this exercise, the longer you put pressure on your body on these and other involved muscles.
2. Enhances Your Focus
Continuously performing planks will also shift your focus from whatever you were thinking before the plank exercise began to improving the posture of the plank. Therefore, you might consciously or subconsciously want to enhance your plank posture.
As a result, you might develop a concentration of being highly focused on something for a long time. You can try out a plank and see if you witness such changes. Also, it is not something you overcome if you practice plank for weight loss daily. As you keep increasing the duration, the concentration-time on the exercise and plank posture also significantly enhance.
3. Makes You Feel Comfortable While Walking/Sitting Upright
Another significant advantage of performing planks daily is that it consciously or subconsciously makes you feel comfortable walking without bending your back. You might even sit straight on a chair without feeling neck pain or needing to arch while doing your work.
Walking straight makes you feel prouder. Others might feel you have grown your height, but that isn't true. Additionally, the continuous practice of walking straight makes your body comfortable in the new posture.
I will eventually increase your plank durations too. As a result, doing planks for weight loss daily resulted in a secondary benefit which also impacts the primary. Some people might start witnessing the results after completing the first plank workout.
However, continuously practicing planks might make some people think they no longer require them and might resume their original slouch body posture. Therefore, it's best to keep practicing planks even when you don't want to work out or have an off, as it significantly impacts your posture and progress.
4. Assists in Decreasing Body Fat
Since plank is an isometric exercise that requires the effort of your whole body, fat burning is evident. However, it can only burn 2-5 calories per minute. Therefore, expecting significant results from a single plank workout session during an online fitness class is inappropriate.
But it requires tightening the core muscles, making you feel uncomfortable yet healthier in the same area. You might also stray away from junk food or high-calorie food to avoid the loss of your extensive ab workout session with an online personal fitness trainer.
Additionally, the muscle pain might want you to stay focused on your fitness goal. Other ab exercises like reverse ab crunches, situps, or Russian twists might not leave such an impact on your core muscles, especially if you have more than 20% body fat.
5. Helps You to Understand Your Weak Points
Any fitness enthusiast that performs planks daily will undoubtedly get to know the weak joints or areas in the body. For example, some might need more hand strength to perform a plank for 30 seconds, which is meant for beginners.
Other people might witness significant back or joint pain, meaning they need to work on such areas by exercising or going to a doctor to get a health checkup. Some people might even gasp, which means the body is weak or you have outperformed the existing resistance level of your physique.
Some people might not witness problems while doing an elbow plank but might come across areas of improvement while practicing variations. The best method to perform a plank is to continuously check whether your body is symmetrical by looking downwards until you can see your feet or shoes. If you are not in symmetry, then that is the issue that your body is currently facing.
Conclusion
Plank exercise might seem doable while watching someone else does it. As an isometric exercise, it is relatively easier than an L-Sit, V-Sit, handstand, etc. However, you might encounter unnoticed issues once you try performing the exercise.
Simultaneously, you can reap the advantages of planks. Some of these benefits may help improve the plank's duration. It's best to perform a plank against a mirror to avoid spoiling the symmetry.
Alternatively, you can enroll in an online fitness class that involves bodyweight exercises and helps to achieve your weight loss goal.