question about interval/body weight training

whatava

Hi all! I am trying to figure out how many calories I burn during my body weight circuit. I can't seem to figure out how to add a plank to my exercise diary. Anyone know why that is?

I weigh 151. The circuit is as follows and repeated 3 times:

20 squats
10 pushups
20 lunges
2 minute plank
30 jumping jacks

I'd totally appreciate the input

Azdak

There is really no point to adding a plank to the exercise diary. At your weight, in 2 min you burned at most 6 or 7 calories.

maxit

There is really no point to adding a plank to the exercise diary. At your weight, in 2 min you burned at most 6 or 7 calories.

It might not affect your calories very much, but exercise diaries also serve to keep track of reps/weight/time. I keep my workout diary in a little notebook for this reason.

whatava

When I type the info into this it comes up with a lot more calories than 6 or 7! http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/calories-burned/plank-37363320

rybo

There's an entry for calisthenics. You could use that for your overall workout.

Trying to determine calorie burn for planks is useless. And you could do a lot more effective core exercises in those 6 minutes of planking that you do

whatava

rybo, what other core exercises do you recommend? I was under the impression that planks are good bc they work so many different muscles

AliceDark

whatava wrote: »

When I type the info into this it comes up with a lot more calories than 6 or 7! http://www.myfitnesspal.com/exercise/calories-burned/plank-37363320

That's not accurate. It says I would burn 186 calories for a 1-minute plank. There's no way.

whatava

Okay very good to know! Alice - is your last name really Dark? That's mine too!

hill8570

whatava wrote: »

rybo, what other core exercises do you recommend? I was under the impression that planks are good bc they work so many different muscles

Take a look at You Are Your Own Gym. Lots of bodyweight stuff there. I second the vote to just log a generic "calisthenics" for the time interval of the whole workout for calorie tracking purposes. If you want to keep track of progress on individual exercises (not calories), then you can use the "strength training" portion of the exercise diary.

rybo

Planks are good, but once you have built to doing them for that long its time to move on to a more challenging exercise. A shorter more intense contraction is better than just hanging out without much stress. Try incorporating bridges, L-sits, supermans, hollow body, or other "hard style" plank variations. Hanging knee raises are an excellent exercise as well.