The inchworm exercise is not very popular even though it has benefits for shaping the whole body, plus it affects blood circulation, so today we decided to highlight it more and explain everything about it, and how you can include it in your daily routine, There are also many other exercises explained and their effects on Fitness Garage.
Benefits of the Inchworm exercise
This exercise has many benefits, most importantly it trains most of the body muscles at once, along with these benefits:
- Suitable exercise for beginners.
- Great training for warm-up and muscle activation.
- Knee ligament stretching.
- Reduces the chance of injury.
Step by step inchworm exercise
There are two ways to do the inchworm exercise. One needs a lot of space, the other doesn’t. Both have benefits because most of the Fitness Garage followers are girls working out at home. We’ll show you the version that doesn’t need much space, done like this:
- Stand up straight with your feet a bit apart.
- Tighten your belly muscles.
- Take a breath and start bending down toward the floor, reaching out your hands.
- You need to bend your neck a little.
- When you reach the ground with your hand, move it forward until it’s level with your shoulders.
- Let your heels lift a little off the ground.
- Try to keep your body as straight and tight as you can.
- Bend your arms like you’re doing a push-up.
- Then go back to the start, moving your hand toward your feet until it’s in front of them, then lift again.
Common inchorm mistakes
One good thing about this exercise is it hardly causes serious injury, but watch out for some mistakes because it uses most of your body muscles, like:
- Moving too fast: You should not do this exercise fast when going down toward the floor, because it causes muscle strain in the knee.
- Not breathing properly: Exhale and inhale several times during this exercise due to the many steps you take.
- Not tightening your abdominal muscles: Many focus on arm and leg muscles in this exercise and forget to tighten the abs, which leads to unwanted spine movements and strain in back muscles. There are some signs that show you are not tightening your abs:
- You need to bend your hips a lot when going down.
- When you get to the plank position, you find your hip muscles are not tight.
- Neck lift forward: You'll find yourself wanting to lift your neck up when you get into plank position. Don't do this. Keep your neck straight because lifting it can hurt your spine and cause other movement and walking problems.
Inchworm exercise for pros
If you want to do the inchworm exercise like a pro, follow these steps:
- Do the exercise in the regular way and when you reach the plank position.
- Move your right arm forward, then bring it back. Repeat the same with your left arm.
Stop immediately if you feel pain in your shoulder or arms. Also, keep your abs tight during the exercise. Breathe well and naturally. If you're a beginner, sticking with inchworm regularly will let you reach the pro level after a while.
The inchworm is a type of exercise suitable for all levels. It works most main muscles. There are many exercises that work the whole body. It's very useful to add them to your workout like air squats, walking lunges, downward dog. Make sure these exercises are in your weekly routine.
