Variation is one of the key ingredients in any exercise regime. The Plank is one of the best abs exercises you can do for toning and fat burning, but if you just keep doing exactly the same exercise time after time your body will get used to it. Try these 3 ‘plank variation’ exercises to keep keeping great results from your workouts;

All the following exercises can be done with your knees down if they are too difficult;

1/ Half Plank – Alternate Leg Up

 Position: Kneel on all fours on the floor. Rest on your elbows and feet holding your body up.

Technique: Make sure your back is flat and you can feel your core (stomach) muscles working. Hold position still and alternately raise 1 leg up.

Points To Remember: Make sure your back remains flat, i.e. your hips don’t sag down, raise up too high, or tilt to 1 side. Make sure your elbows stay directly beneath your shoulders and don’t slide further forward.

2/ Pike Plank

 Position: Kneel on all fours on the floor. Raise up on your elbows and toes holding your body up.

Technique: Raise hips as high as possible so your body adopts a V-shape. Hold position still.

Points To Remember: Make sure you keep squeezing your hips towards the ceiling as much as possible. Make sure your elbows stay directly beneath your shoulders and don’t slide further forward.

3/ Full Plank – Straight Arms

Position: Raise up on your hands and toes holding your body up. The further forward your arms go and further back your legs go the more difficult it becomes.

Technique: Raise hips so your whole body is in a straight line. Hold position still.

Points To Remember: Make sure your back remains flat, i.e. your hips don’t sag down or raise up too high.

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This outrageous stomach fat myth is something that 9/10 people who exercise buy into. So the chances are reading this article will take a lot closer if one of your fitness goals is to burn stomach fat.

The problem is everyone thinks you need to do exercise after exercise on your stomach to reduce fat to the area.  And even if you are one of the few people who do more effective stomach exercise, eg. planks instead of sit-ups, that alone will not get you the reduced stomach fat you are looking for.

You also need to perform total body exercises that engage the core in different ways. Two great examples of this are squats are deadlifts. With both of these exercises you are engaging the core in a totally different way compared to a regular stomach exercise.

You are actually engaging more muscle fibres with these two exercises than most stomach exercises. You may not get the same ‘burn’ feeling you do with a sit-up, but they are far more effective in burning stomach fat. You can do both of these exercises from home, check the search column on the right for descriptions of both.

Today’s Takeaway – But don’t just stop at these two exercises, really concentrate on engaging your core as much as possible during every exercise you do for best results.

To grab your copy of Rob’s Free Report ‘Cheat’s Guide to Fat Burning From Home – Simple 5 Step Plan,’ plus 2 other great free gifts, click here; ‘www.homeworkoutsuccess.co.uk/free-report.’

The two most common exercises for the stomach area are crunches (sit-ups) and the plank. What if you could you just 1 exercise that incorporated the benefits of both all into one? This would double the effectiveness of your workout half the time!

This exercise is called the Spiderman Crunch. 

Position: Rest on your hands and feet, facing the floor and with your body raised up.

 Technique:  Alternately draw one knee up towards the same shoulder, crunching through the stomach. Squeeze it as high as possible.

Points to Remember: Keep your hips down and back flat. The further you slide your legs back the more difficult it becomes.

If the above if really difficult for you, don’t panic, just do 2 reps at a time resting in between before attempting any more.

As you will notice from the above description you are holding a straight-arm plank as well as crunching your knee up using your abs. This means you are getting the best of both exercises. It’s really important that you engage your stomach muscles as you crunch the knee up towards your hand.

Today’s Takeaway - The more muscles you can work in each exercise the more fat you burn. The Spiderman Crunch is a prime example of this.

To grab your copy of Rob’s Free Report ‘Cheat’s Guide to Fat Burning From Home – Simple 5 Step Plan,’ plus 2 other great free gifts, click here; ‘www.homeworkoutsuccess.co.uk/free-report.’

As some of you may know I did 3000 press-ups in 3 hours last week to raise money for sport relief. And it was pretty horrendous let me tell you. But I thought I would keep this week’s post topical, and tell you exactly what press-ups could do for you.

Having done 3000 of the things, and all the training that came with it, I can tell you from first hand experience exactly what benefits press-ups will bring you.

But firstly, it’s important to state that you don’t have to do a  full press-up (push-up) from your feet. Women in particular have less upper body strength and will struggle with these. So do them on your knees if neccessary that’s absolutely fine.

The main areas which press-ups target (and the areas which are still hurting on me now!) are the chest, triceps, lats, upper back and lower stomach.

This is lot of different muscles for just one exercise, which means you will burn a lot of calories from doing them. And in fact a lot of the problem areas I get questions about are hit by doing press-ups.

You may not feel that your abs are working during a press-up, but that’s part and parcel of training multiple muscles groups at the same time. I guarantee you will be burning a lot more calories and benefitting your abs a lot more by doing a press-up than by doing crunches.

Today’s Takeaway - Press-ups work many different body parts, burn loads of calories and should be part of everyone’s exercise regime.

To grab your copy of Rob’s Free Report ‘Cheat’s Guide to Fat Burning From Home – Simple 5 Step Plan,’ plus 2 other great free gifts, click here; ‘www.homeworkoutsuccess.co.uk/free-report.’