How to do the plank abdominal
The iron abdominal (also known as a plank), is one of the exercises for the abdomen area most complete and functional that there is. Along with the well-known crunch abdominal, and the hypopressive abdominal gymnastics, is one of the exercises belly most effective lose belly and the more you will practice.
This exercise works the entire trunk ordered way, both the front as well as the oblícuos, and in addition also strengthens the lumbar area. In this post we will see how to make iron abdominal correctly.
What is the plank abdominal?
The plank abdominal exercise type of isometric in which we endure in a posture for a certain time while you activate certain muscles. This exercise can be done game in the series or continuous.
Muscles involved
The plank abdominal is a full year in the a considerable amount of muscles. These are the muscles involved when doing the exercise:
- Oblícuo external
- Oblícuo internal
- Rectum abdominal
- Transverse abdominis
- Serratus anterior
- Hip flexors
- Gluteus maximus
- Gluteus medius
- Biceps femoris
- Rectus femoris
If we also make the plate without support for the forearms, we will have extra work:
- Biceps brachii
- Triceps brachii
- Pectoralis major
- Latissimus dorsi
- Anterior deltoid
As you can see, the plank abdominal exercise is quite complete and functional.
How to make the plate thinner?
What is the purpose of this exercise? As we have seen in one of the above points, with the iron abdominal we get to work our muscles. Tone and strengthen does not imply in any case that an exercise lose weight.
This type of exercises are good to tone our abdominal muscles, to make them strong, but if you're looking to lose weight, it is best that you combine this type of exercises with some cardio, to burn fat.
As to properly perform the plank abdominal
To do this exercise it is necessary to put face down on a mat. Below you have the instructions to correctly perform the exercise the plank abdominal.
Iron abdominal step-by-step
- Supporting the forearms on the floor, keeping your legs straight and slightly apart.
- Lift the body leaving only supported forearms and metatarsals, forming a straight line, horizontal and parallel to the ground, from the feet to the head.
- Keep the back straight and notice as you activate the muscles of the CORE, in addition to glutes, delts, arms, and muscles of the leg.
- We avoid the abdominal breathing. It is best to perform a diaphragmatic breathing.
Diaphragmatic breathing prevents the "swelling" of the abdomen when breathing, so the muscles to remain active all the time of the exercise.
What is the correct posture of shoulders and arms?
The posture of the arms and shoulders should be the correct one, as otherwise we might do harm to us when we carry a time keeping the posture.
- The elbows should be in a straight line with the shoulders, leaving the arm perpendicular to the floor.
- The forearms are resting on the floor. We can also make the irons to support the hands, in that case will be the entire arm (forearm included), perpendicular to the ground and only the palms of the hands.
Placement of the pelvis
Do you anteversion, retroversión or neutral? What is most suitable to do this ejerccio with the pelvis neutral, keeping to the curves of the back in its natural position.
In cases of hyperlordosis may be indicated a retroversión of the pelvis to avoid the overload in the lumbar area, but this must be valued by a professional, and always be under the supervision of a trainer or professional sports.
Execution of the exercise
- The exercise consists on staying in that position, while you tighten and work those muscles.
- Muscle contraction during exercise. Contracting the muscles of the trunk voluntarily.
- Stay in position, controlling the posture of the body and contracting the muscles.
How many repetitions? How much time?
You can make irons in sets of 15, 30, 60... seconds, depending on your level. Do several repetitions
Common errors
These are the errors that you may make when you do plank with respect to the posture of the body.
Arching back
One of the more frequent failures is that of arching the back. This error, it is one of the worst that one can commit with this exercise, since you can do damage in the lumbar area.
If the back is not placed properly, you can increase the pressure between the vertebrae of the lumbar area. If you do it wrong one day, you can be hurt. But the problem is to perform this exercise with the mistake of arching your back, without knowing the technique, and end up causing a more serious injury.
The cause of this error may be lack of technique, lack of strength, or fatigue. Controls the time, if this is too much, you can start arching your back without wanting to.
Raise the buttocks
The other common error in the exercise of the sheet of abs is the lifting of the buttocks. This error subtraction effectiveness of the exercise, and can cause overload on the shoulders. Like the previous one, this error is due to the lack of strength, or the lack of knowledge of the technique of the exercise.
If the problem is the lack of strength, or muscle fatigue, it should be considered a break or
Errors in the placement of the arms
An error in the angle in which they are placed the arms can lead to overload on the shoulder joint. You should always keep in mind that the line that goes from the shoulder to the elbow is perpendicular to the ground.
The shoulder and elbow should be in line, one above the other, but it is never the arm in diagonal, since in this way the position will be painful and we can injure.
Lack of strength or tiredness
Some of these common mistakes when doing this exercise are caused by fatigue or by lack of muscle strength. The error is in continuing the exercise if you have gotten to this point. It is always preferable to be less time, but in the correct position. Do not push your body to limits where you can do damage or cause injury.
To lack of strength or tiredness: less time ironing, and after that we will go by increasing the time little by little, day after day. A way to motivate and increase the times is by using a challenge plate.
If you need to know more about common errors on the abs, take a look at this post.
Video to learn how to do the plank abdominal
Here's a video in which you can learn in a visual way to make the exercise of the plate. In this way, you'll be able to include this exercise in your workout routine:
The channel where I got this video is called P4P Spanish, and if you don't know it I invite you to look for. It is a channel that I love and a floor to visit often, since they have videos very interesting where they explain in a very clear and visual how to do different exercises.
Computer graphics, as do the plank abdominal
We have prepared this little infographic as a summary so that you can save it, print it, or share it on your social networks. In addition to this infographic, we thought that if you already know the method to make the plate sit-ups properly, you may be interested to this challenge.
In addition to the iron abdominal classic, there other variants which you can see in this article. You can also see other exercises like: