Exercise is an essential part of any healthy lifestyle. If you work out on a regular basis, you’ll benefit from increased strength, improved cardiovascular endurance, fat reduction, as well as an overall decrease in health risks. Yes, we all know that there are countless health benefits of exercise, but just how much exercise do we really need? It all comes down to your fitness goals.

Planks are in the top 10 of the best abdominal exercises to do, according to to the American Council on Exercise. There's no doubt about it that planks have become a go-to strength exercise which has great benefits for the whole body. If you have not yet harnessed the power of the plank then it is time to find out what's so great about them!
What is a plank?
A plank is what is known as an isometric exercise, which means that during contraction you do not change the angle of the joint or the muscle length.

It's one thing to keep fit and to lead a healthy lifestyle, but it's quite another to train to with the aim of improving fitness in a specific way or to ensure a particular result. Take strength training for example, you may want to increase muscle power building any bulk; you might want to concentrate of bodybuilding as opposed to strengthening up your core muscles; or you may even want to build muscles so that you can burn fat more effectively and slim down.

If you don't believe in yourself then you're not going to set and achieve goals, and so you really are setting yourself up to fail and creating a self-perpetuating motion of defeat. Add in some age-old classic exercise excuses and you can easily avoid creating a healthy lifestyle now and also find detours on the road ahead.

What makes a woman strong? Both physically and mentally, exercise can play a big part in promoting strength; this benefit promotes health and fitness. Beyond this, exercise can help inspire a way of life and an approach to life, as well as impact your perspective and view of yourself.

Pain is subjective; each of us has a certain threshold at which point the intensity of a stimulus is at a level where we perceive pain. In fitness, people talk about pushing beyond the pain barrier and working out outside your comfort zone. Certainly to achieve results you need to challenge yourself physically and mentally.

Have you ever woken up to declare that this is the day you're going to change your life? This is the day you're going to change your life and lead a fit and healthy lifestyle, right? Of course you have. Do you know what, you're not alone. We all have good intentions to make dramatic differences at various points in time and these sudden spurts of enthusiasm have often been building up inside for some time.

Want killer abs? Less excess baggage? Or to be able to run a marathon? There's nothing wrong with having really specific fitness goals, and in fact clarity can help illuminate the way forward and allow for an effective exercise strategy to be set in motion.