Drawing up an exercise routine that will help you accomplish the body that you always hankered after is a tricky job. You need to take into consideration your lifestyle, your fitness level and the nourishment you get. Though an exercise routine should be undertaken to brace the body, it does not hurt if an exercise regimen targets your problem areas and helps you to eliminate buckle fat or thunder upper legs.

If you'd like to have a flat belly then there isn't any better exercises than crunches and plank exercises. When both these exercises are done in conjunction with a good cardio routine, it'll help you to sculpt your middle and reach a toned body. Crunches are thought to be one of the finest exercise to bolster the core and whittle your tummy. Planks too are good for fortifying the core and making a tight stomach. But there are basic differences between crunches and planks and each one of these target different muscle groupings in your abdominal area.

Method Concerned

Before we argument about crunches vs plank exercises, we should know how each one of these exercise forms are performed. To do crunches, you want to lie down on your back, with your knees bend keeping your shoulders relaxed. With your fingers lightly touching the sides of your head, you want to exhale, contract your stomach and raise your shoulders and chest forward. Hold this position for 1 or 2 seconds, inhale and lower your body to the ground. This is a basic crunches exercise which targets the Rectus Abdominis which is a long muscle that extends all along the stomach.

To do a plank exercise, you want to lie face down on the floor with your elbows tucked underneath your shoulders. Breathe out and support your upper body weight by resting on your forearms and toes. Your body should form a straight line and your abdomen should be taut. Hold this position for a couple of seconds and lower body back to the beginning position. Doing a plank exercise, targets the Transverse Abdominis which are the deep abdominal muscles that lies just beneath the oblique muscles. As you can clearly see, both these exercises involve a different strategy for its execution and it targets different muscle groupings in your stomach.

Muscle Contraction

Both plank exercise and crunches are isometric exercises but their main difference lies in the way in which the muscles contract while you perform each exercise. When you do a plank exercise, isometric contraction of the muscles occur because you are holding this position for a cited time. The muscles of your core are exerting maximum force to hold this position, thereby strengthening it. While doing crunches, eccentric contraction of the muscles happen when you lower your shoulders and chest to the ground and concentric contraction occurs when you lift your upper body off the floor.

Risk Factors

Another difference between crunches and plank exercising is in the way it impacts heaviliy on the body. Doing basic crunches can over time , strain the neck muscles. Due to the method concerned in doing crunches, it strengthens bad posture ( slumped shoulders and rounded upper back ), which can cause spinal issues and upper back stiffness. In a plank exercise, you have to make sure that you align your body in a straight line while holding the plank pose. You back should not sag while doing the exercise and there shouldn't be disproportionate pelvic tilt. If you're not careful about maintaining proper posture while doing a plank pose, you might hurt your back and spine.

Both crunches and plank exercises are excellent exercises for bracing the core and accomplishing a flat tummy. Nonetheless doing these exercises alone without a correct total body workout that includes cardiovascular coaching won't help with reducing waist fat. There are many variations of the classic crunches and plank pose and incorporating these in your workout regime will help you to achieve a healthy and fit body.