Calories Burned Planking : 0 Kcal
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PLANKING vs CALORIES
Planking is a relatively new trend that has received mixed reviews from a varied range of people. There are those who swear that it’s the key to their tight midsection while some say that it’s too much work for so little result. The plank is an isometric exercise that involves engaging your core muscles to maintain a particular position over a specific amount of time. The most common form of this exercise is what’s known as the forearm plank where you carry your body’s full weight through your elbows, forearm, and toes. It is commonly practiced as part of a regiment such as Pilates or yoga but is gaining popularity among other branches of communities including the armed forces. It can be quite challenging to perform properly, especially for newbies, and doing it for a minute can be daunting at first. As an isometric exercise, the plank focuses on holding a position over a certain amount of time instead of performing it for several repetitions.
How many calories does a 1 minute plank burn?
For most of us, five minutes is not a lot of time. Five minutes is not even enough to finish a cup of coffee in the morning. But when it comes to planking, five minutes can be an eternity. As with any exercise, the amount of calories you burn depends largely on your weight, body composition, and metabolism.
But for this time, we will assume that you weigh 150 lbs. for calculations’ sake. You will burn 221 calories per hour. But realistically, unless you have quite an exceptional core strength and endurance, you cannot do a full hour. But for most, a minute is achievable. 1 minute of planking for a 150-lb person will burn 3.68 calories per minute. A person weighing over 175 pounds will burn aournd 4- 5 calories per minute.For a full workout session, most will include 5 sets of 1-minute planking so a session will take care of about 18 calories. Now, that’s not a lot of calories for what seems to be a lot of work and that is true. Planking was never intended to be a one-stop-shop for trimming the fat. It is mostly to help you build your core strength for other exercises that burns a lot more calories like jump rope and running where your posture can be improved by a strong midsection.
PLANKING FOR 1000 CALORIES
Again, planking will not burn the most amount of calories in the shortest amount of time. Roughly 4 calories per minute for a 150-lb person is not a lot. 1000 calories equate to 250 minutes. This looks very challenging but there are a lot of ways to make this more manageable. It will take longer than a week but planking can help you burn a lot more than 1000 calories.
Here’s a simple workout plan that is both simple enough to follow and will help you burn more than 1000 calories in a month. There are numerous 30-day plank challenges that you can try that would get you on the road to burning calories.
Some variations of the plank will burn more calories like the extended arm plank and the forearm side plank and other variations that are going to incorporate movements like the high plank shoulder taps and low plank knee taps.
Just keep in mind that as you progress to more advanced versions of the plank, you are indeed burning more calories but you need to make sure that you follow strict form for each variation to maximize its effect. Not doing so can not only lessen your benefits, it could open you up for possible injuries.
FOREARM PLANK VS HIGH PLANK
The high plank is known as the traditional plank (3). It is done by assuming the starting position of push-ups with your hands positioned directly under your shoulders and your legs straight. Push with your hands until your arms are fully extended. Make sure that your body is straight with your body forming an angle with the ground. Hold this position for 30 seconds and go back top your starting position. Do this four times and that’s your workout. With the forearm plank, it is virtually the same with the high plank except your body weight is resting on your forearm and elbows instead of your arms. You burn slightly more calories with the forearm planks due to its relative difficulty but not significantly so. There are other more challenging forms of the plank-like examples mentioned above. Planks are the best isometric core exercise out there and whether you go with the high or forearm plank, always make sure that you follow the proper form to not waste your time.
WHY PLANK?
Most research about the effectiveness of the plank related to calorie burn focuses on the burned calories while the exercise is being performed. One of the benefits of doing planking exercises is that it continues to burn calories after performing the exercise. Sometimes called “after-burn effect”, the body burns more calories while trying to recover from the impact of an isometric exercise like the plank. Many planking exercises recruits most of the major core muscles like glutes, obliques, and abdominals. This then improves the performance of said muscle groups and helps you with other activities like lifting heavier weights and other athletic activities like jumping. Planking also improves your posture, flexibility, and overall balance .While it is true that you will not burn a ton of calories by simply doing plankings, doing so will allow you to have the stability to perform other exercises that do burn lots of calories. Most compound exercises like squats and deadlifts require ample core strength and planking gives you that strength. Even other bodyweight exercises like walking, running, and jump rope requires good posture to properly benefit from it. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that planking shreds your midsection and shapes your legs and glutes giving you that hourglass silhouette.
THE TAKEAWAY
Planking has a lot of variations and each has its own merits. You may not be able to burn a lot of calories by only doing planking exercises but it does offer a wide range of benefits. Just like having good knife skills can be helpful to a chef, having a strong base and core can help you perform a wide range of exercises with a strict form. Isometric exercises, at its core, are not designed to burn a lot of calories, rather give you that platform so you can perform those exercises that do. Unlike most exercises that incorporate movements, the traditional plank relies more on holding your weight which burns more calories after the fact instead of the moment of execution. All in all, the plank is a great exercise to include in your routine to support your other exercises.
