Many are familiar or have simply heard about the modern fashionable plank exercise. This is the name of standing on the forearms and toes parallel to the floor. Something akin to the usual standing in support at the beginning of push-ups from the floor. Only if during push-ups there is a lowering and raising of the body due to flexion and extension of the arms at the elbow joints, then the bar is a fixation of the occupied position for a while. There are other positions, this is the main one.
The benefits of the plank exercise are great and undeniable. And, probably, very few people understand why this exercise is valuable.
On the other hand, few people realize that the plank can be harmful to health, and that there is a group of people who should refuse this exercise.
Therefore, let’s talk about the bar in a little more detail.
The benefits of plank exercise
The plank refers to the type of static (in another way, isometric) exercises. The so-called exercises during which there is no change in the length of the muscle fibers. Those. there is no alternation of muscle contraction and stretching.
Plank practitioners, as mentioned above, simply take the correct position, and then try to hold it for the maximum amount of time. And it is in this striving (to hold the position to the last strength) that the valuable treasure of this exercise is hidden.
Many articles have already mentioned that when overcoming muscle fatigue, burning sensation, pain and a strong desire to stop exercising, a whole chain of hormonal responses is triggered in the human body.
The hypothalamus acts on the pituitary gland. That, in turn, responds by releasing a whole series of hormones: growth hormone (growth hormone), luteinizing and follicle-stimulating hormones. The latter, in turn, are associated with the release of testosterone in both men and women.
Growth hormone, according to recent reports, plays an active role in cleansing the walls of blood vessels from atherosclerotic deposits. Testosterone is essential for the immune system to function properly.
Of course, our body constantly releases these hormones on its own. The only problem is that their number is constantly decreasing from the age of 25-30.
So, it turns out that the bar brings the greatest benefit not at all as an exercise for the press or endurance, but as an exercise that practically guarantees the launch of the necessary healing chain inside the body, associated with improving the functioning of the endocrine glands.
And do not think that only slender people without excess weight can fulfill the bar. There is a lot of evidence that severely overweight people stay in the bar for 2-3 minutes even without training.
Stand in the plank not for the sake of abs and a beautiful figure. Get on the bar to the very limit so that the body releases the right hormones.
Just remember that not everyone can do this exercise.
Who shouldn’t do the plank exercise
Any static stress (which, as we remember, the bar also refers to) seriously increases blood pressure during exercise.
Therefore, the bar should be abandoned for people with hypertension, atherosclerosis and the presence of blood clots. In this case, static-dynamic exercises are more suitable, in which a small amplitude of movement, as well as localization of the load, eliminates an increase in pressure in the body.
