Can plank support reduce belly fat?

The plank is a posture that we are familiar with. No matter whether you have tried it or not, you will never be unfamiliar with it. But, who said this posture is called an Internet celebrity posture? So, since the plank posture is so well-known, where can we practice it and what effects does it have? Will this posture help us lose weight?

It seems that the last question is what we are more concerned about, because many friends come to ask if holding planks for 2 minutes every day will help them lose belly fat or develop mermaid lines. Therefore, today let’s talk about the topic of whether planks can reduce belly fat.

In fact, the answer is simple and obvious, it is no. Because we know that the main thing to do to lose weight is to lose abdominal fat. The method is to control the diet to ensure that the caloric intake does not exceed the limit, and then cooperate with regular exercise to consume calories. The purpose is to create a caloric gap so that one can slowly lose weight successfully.

So, from the perspective of caloric consumption, planking for one hour can make us consume about 200 calories, but we know that jogging can consume about 500 calories. Therefore, judging from the data of caloric consumption for one hour, planking does not have an advantage at all, let alone holding it for two minutes a day. In addition, if you want to effectively lose weight, it is fundamentally about creating a negative balance of calories. If you do not consider your diet, let alone planks, even insisting on HIIT will be meaningless.

Therefore, simply doing planks cannot help us lose weight. If we want to lose weight, we still need to control our diet and exercise actively.

There are benefits of course, and the more immediate benefit is that it can give you a longer time to persist. In addition, we also know that the plank is a classic posture for building core strength. If we can persist for 2 minutes every day, our core strength will be exercised accordingly, and therefore, our strength training methods and core reliability will be correspondingly improved.

Therefore, there is no need to underestimate the three-minute training every day, because strong core stability is the basis for other forms of training. For example, in almost all training movements, we are required to tighten the core. The purpose is to ensure the stability of the human body, so as to avoid the compensation state of non-target muscles during the training process, thereby making the training relatively independent.

This seems to be related to reducing belly fat, because in the process of abdominal shaping, in addition to losing weight, abdominal muscle exercises are also required. Then we understand that plank is a posture for exercising core strength, and core strength naturally includes abdominal muscles.

However, the plank is a static movement and cannot contract or stretch the abdominal muscles. Therefore, even though it will stimulate the abdominal muscles to a certain extent, the actual effect is not as good as abdominal crunches and other movements. However, we must not ignore one thing, that is, strong links will help us perform abdominal training actions such as crunches as quickly as possible, such as ensuring that the abdominal muscle core exerts force and avoids compensation, ensuring reasonable control of speed and avoiding inertia forces, etc., and these are what we need to ensure most during the process of training abdominal muscles.

In addition, planks will also help us exercise the transversus abdominis, and the relatively developed transversus abdominis can firmly wrap around our abdomen, thereby tightening the waist and abdomen and reducing hip circumference. Of course, if you like the plank position and want to exercise your abdominal muscles through this position, you can choose some modified support positions that can contract, flex and stretch the abdominal muscles.

Therefore, from the perspective of abdominal training, insisting on planks can help us lay a good foundation, thereby improving the overall training efficiency during abdominal training, and will also help us exercise the transverse abdominis muscles to maintain the abdomen and reduce hip circumference.

summary:

From the perspective of weight loss, holding a plank for 2 minutes a day is of little significance, because the key is to see whether there is a caloric deficit.； From the practical significance of the movement itself, 2 minutes of plank every day can help us improve the strength training method and its key reliability, thus laying a good foundation for other training. ； From the perspective of abdominal muscle training, holding a plank for 2 minutes a day can help us improve the overall abdominal muscle training efficiency, thus providing sufficient stimulation to the abdominal muscles in a limited time.

Therefore, when we want to achieve a certain goal through planks, the first thing we need to think about is whether planks are useful for our purpose, and then consider whether it is necessary to do it, rather than blindly follow the trend.