When You Plank Every Day, This Is What Really Happens

The plank, a popular ab exercise, has roots as far back as the 1920s when Joseph Pilates introduced the leg pull front to his base of followers. However, the plank's true rise to fame as a go-to core-strengthening movement didn't really gain steam until the early 2000s. By 2014, major national fitness organizations, like the American Council on Exercise, were singing the plank's praises as a legitimate ab-strengthening replacement for crunches and sit-ups. So of course, with the exercise's popularity also came corresponding challenges, like the 30-day plank challenge. 

The basic goal of his challenge is to perform a plank (with good form) every day for 30 days, with the goal of being able to hold a plank for two minutes by day 12, and five minutes by day 30. It's a solid way to monitor strength and stamina gains of a single exercise over the course of a month. And it certainly sounds doable, right? You just dedicate a maximum of five minutes of work daily over the course of a month. But when you decide to participate in this type of challenge, what can you expect to accomplish? Results vary from person to person, but here's what you might expect to experience once you start doing planks every day. 

When most people think of ab exercises, they think of exercises to strengthen the "six pack" muscles, or the rectus abdominis. But these "show me" muscles are just one of a set of abdominal muscles that also include the internal and external obliques (the muscles that wrap around your abdomen and help with trunk flexion, compression, and rotation) and the deep transverse abdominis (TVA).

Unlike some other ab exercises, the plank requires contraction of all four sets of muscle groups, but is particularly good at targeting the TVA. According to Verywell Fit, this deep muscle is particularly important because it acts like a "corset" to flatten the abdominal wall, support the internal organs, and to stabilize the lumbar spine, especially when doing movements that involve the arms and legs. 

To activate the TVA, you can use bracing — contracting the abdominal muscles without moving, as though you were waiting to be punched in the stomach — or hollowing — contracting your abdomen while trying to "pull" your belly button toward your spine. Interestingly, planks — when done correctly — use both bracing and hollowing, effectively strengthening this important, oft-neglected, muscle group.

One thing to keep in mind about the basic plank exercise is that it's an isometric, or static, exercise. Unlike many other traditional exercises, like pull-ups, pushups, squats, or even crunches, which are considered isotonic exercises, the plank and other isometric exercises involve muscle contraction without movement. All of the muscle groups involved contract and hold at a very specific joint angle or body position.

As explained by personal trainer and writer Amy Marturana Winderl in an article for Self, isometric exercises can help build strength, but they're less effective at helping you grow muscle because your muscles aren't moving and experiencing the muscle damage associated with isotonic exercises. That said, they help teach your brain to recruit more muscle fibers for a given isometric action and they can help develop muscular endurance, or the ability to perform a certain movement for a longer length of time, exercise physiologist Mike T. Nelson told the publication. Planks will also help you develop strength and stability in the other muscles and joints, including the shoulders, hips, glutes, arms, and quads. 

The shoulder joint is pretty amazing. It's the most flexible joint in the body, capable of rotation, flexion, extension, and both abduction and adduction in two planes of motions. The result is an incredible range of motion that allows for all sorts of movements that make day-to-day life easier. Of course, there's a downside to all that movement and range of motion. The shoulder is also the least stable joint in the body. This makes it particularly susceptible to injury and dislocation.

One effective way to help improve stability and strength at the shoulder is to perform planks on a regular basis. As pointed out by Stack, the plank's isometric hold engages and builds strength around the shoulder blade and at the rotator cuff to keep these smaller muscles stable when performing other exercises. This helps enhance the activation of shoulder muscles during exercise, ultimately reducing injury risk — particularly if you tend to play sports that require swinging or throwing or if you tend to lift heavy weights. 

A strong core can improve balance and help prevent falls, as pointed out by Harvard Health. When your core muscles are efficient and strong, your lower body joints and muscles are more capable of making quick corrections to sudden changes in body position.

To put it another way: If you're walking down the street and someone bumps into you from behind, a strong core will be able to contract and engage efficiently, helping prevent your spine from flexing or rotating awkwardly while simultaneously helping the muscles of your legs respond in a way that allows you to catch your balance.

This quick and efficient core engagement is essential for balance and can be enhanced with plank exercises. Health suggests using a plank reach — a variation in which you lift opposite hands and feet of the ground while holding a stable core — to further develop balance and coordination. But if you're not ready for this variation just yet, start with a standard plank, then try lifting one limb at a time for a second or two. Even small challenges like this can further build balance and stability.

When it comes to metabolism-boosting exercises, the plank isn't at the top of the list. Typically, you need to focus on dynamic movements, such as burpees, jump rope, squat presses, or mountain climbers if you really want to get your internal fires burning those extra calories. That said, performing a daily plank challenge certainly won't hurt your metabolism, and it can give you at least a little boost — especially if you're focused on engaging all your major muscle groups to perform the plank.

Andia Winslow, master certified fitness professional and pro athlete, shared with Livestrong, "Anytime prime movers (legs and glutes) are involved, there will be greater caloric burn, which is why, in a plank, folks have to remember to engage their legs, squeezing the thighs and glutes along with holding the core and trunk firm." And once you've mastered the standard plank, incorporating dynamic planks into your routine can further help you engage more muscle groups and burn more calories. 

If you're looking for a way to beat back the blues or to feel better about yourself, never underestimate the power of strength training. While most people think of strength training as a full-fledged weight room routine (which it certainly can be), it's important to remember that a daily plank session also counts as one simple form of strength training. While it may not reap the same level of results as a more robust workout, it's great for times when you're short on energy or motivation — and it may be all you need for a mental health boost (and perhaps, all you're able to handle).

In a summary review of the mental health benefits of resistance training, Dr. Len Kravitz and Amenda Ramirez of the University of New Mexico pointed out that resistance training can improve self-esteem, combat anxiety, boost cognition, lessen depression, improve sleep, and enhance memory. Not to mention, performing an exercise every single day can help you develop the self-efficacy and confidence you need to gradually expand the program and incorporate different exercises.