If there is an exercise that will make you understand how long a minute actually is, it is a plank. While many people make it look easy and doable, when you actually do it, you realize that it is not just about your arm muscles or your leg strength, it requires real strength and endurance from your whole body. It is an isometric exercise that involves holding your body in a straight line from your head to your heel, whilst it is supported by your forearms and toes.

To perform it you must start by lying on your stomach with your forearms on the ground. Slowly lift your stomach up and extend your arm until your body is being supported by your forearms and toes. Keep your core engaged and maintain stability for a minute to two if you can. To achieve this, there are many exercises you can do and prep yourself. Here are some you can try.

Exercises You Can Do

Make sure you are not overexerting yourself and doing this under the supervision of a coach or an instructor for the best results. If you are feeling a lot of pain and cramping us, stop and rest, and see a doctor if the pain persists.

Crunches

This exercise targets your abdominal muscles and people often do this to achieve their ‘6-pack abs’ look. It focuses on building the strength of your stomach muscles and it helps your plank form as your core must stay engaged to perform it well!

Russian Twists

This focuses on the muscles on the sides of your core. Also known as Obliques, these muscles are the part of your core, that stays engaged in the plank. Doing Russian twists which is bending forwards with stretched legs, forming a v shape and twisting your torso to touch each toe.

Bicycle Crunches

This is a combination of crunches and using the cycling motion with your legs. As you extend yourself forward while you lay on your back and bring your knees to your head, you are stretching your side muscles and abdomen muscles, engaging your core. This also helps you stretch and be flexible and avoid cramps

Plank Variations

There are many different kinds of planks. While the traditional one makes you stay in a stationary position, there are variations like side planks, forearm planks, and plank hip dips to target different core muscles. These will build your endurance and help you achieve your goal eventually.

Hold Isometric Exercises

Now to build your arm and leg muscles strength try holding positions like wall sits, glute bridges, and forearm planks and slowly increasing durations. Wall sits allow you to focus your strength on your legs, glute bridge help you build your waist and all of it combined will help you hold forearm planks

Cardiovascular Exercise

These exercises help you build your endurance. Activities like running, swimming, or cycling can improve overall endurance. These will test your lung capacity and your heart rate slopes as well. Your body will learn to utilize its breathing better as well as engage core muscles

Yoga and Pilates

While many people believe these exercises only need strength, flexibility is the surprise element that you will realize helps you do better. These practices can enhance core strength and flexibility. As flexible as you are, your body will have more endurance and patience.

Are women getting more protection from heart attack with less exercise? A study published in the Nature Cardiovascular Research, suggested that men need to exercise twice as much as women to reap similar heart health benefits.

How Was the Study Conducted?

To explore the difference between physical activity and coronary heart disease in two different sexes, Chinese researchers analyzed data from 80,243 men and women in the UK Biobank. These people were free from any heart disease at the start of the study, along with 5,169 who already had a condition.

The activities of these participants were tracked using wrist-worn activity monitors for over one week. After which the participants were followed for a median of nearly eight years.

What Did The Study Find?

The study found that women were at an advantage. Women who met their recommended exercise guideline that is 150 minutes per week had a 22 per cent lower risk of heart disease as compared with men, who had 17 per cent of reduction.

To reduce risk by 30 per cent, the study found that men had to get 530 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise per week. Whereas to achieve the same, women needed 250 minutes, which is less than half the time men need.

Among people with existing coronary heart disease, women who met recommended physical activity levels had a three times lower risk of death from any cause compared to men.

The findings question a one-size-fits-all approach to physical activity and suggest that gender-specific exercise guidelines could help both men and women better protect and improve their cardiovascular health.

What Else Does Benefit Your Heart?

Ditch 10k Steps A Day

A new study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examined how step counts influence longevity and heart health, particularly in older adults. The findings were surprisingly optimistic. Scientists discovered that walking as few as 4,000 steps in a day, even if you manage this number only one or two days a week, can reduce the risk of death by 26 percent. It can also lower the risk of heart disease by 27 percent when compared to those who barely moved.

The benefits became even more striking when participants achieved the 4,000 step target on more than three days per week. In that group, mortality dropped by more than 40 percent and the risk of heart issues fell by 27 percent. These numbers show that moderate, regular walking has powerful protective effects on long-term health.

Go For A Long Walk

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that you should choose one long walk over a few short strolls to keep your heart healthy. This is especially if you do not exercise much.

Walking for at least 15 minutes without a stop is ideal, notes the study. This means you walk for 1,500 steps in a row. This is said to give your heart a good workout. The study also notes that many people who walk 10,000 steps a day, actually follow the number that came from a Japanese pedometer advertisement, and not necessarily science, also reported by BBC. However, experts do agree that more steps are generally better for your health.

Orange Juice For Heart

The study published in Wiley Online Library revealed that orange juice consumption could influence the activity of thousands of genes inside our immune cell. Many of these genes also control blood pressure, calm inflammation and manage the way the body processes sugar. All these functions play an important role for long-term heart health.

Fat prison in China is a trend people are now encountering on their social media channels, where people from China are making videos on what are they being served as their meals. But how much of a "prison" it really is? The Fat prison in reality is a fat camp, where people are voluntarily signing up, because they have realized that the conventional weight loss regime do not necessarily work well. More often than not, gym memberships are abandoned, and diets are not followed through.

What Happens In These 'Fat Prison'?

These "fat prisons" camps follow a military style boot camps that promise rapid weight loss through strict diets. Here, people who sign up are constantly put under surveillance and the structure is designed to ensure participants do not leave or sneak in food.

Also Read: 5 Exercises To Age Better, Know What They Are

Since 2000, the number of obese children in China has quadrupled. Official figures suggest that more than half of China's adults are now overweight. The situation is no longer a body image issue, but a public health crisis.

“Getting back on track to meet the global targets for curbing obesity will take the work of governments and communities, supported by evidence-based policies from WHO and national public health agencies. Importantly, it requires the cooperation of the private sector, which must be accountable for the health impacts of their products," said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

How Does China's Fat Prison Work?

These fat prisons or camps resemble military boot camps more than health clubs. Here, the days start early, with a roll call and weigh-ins. Here, phones are not allowed to the individuals, rooms are shared, and surveillance is constant.

Over the course of 28 days, individuals are expected to take up to 72 classes in total. These include HIIT or high intensity interval training, spinning, boxing, and endurance cardio. Professional trainers also monitor individuals' form, pace, and attendance. They also follow up on their progress.

Read: Fact Check: Does Japan Have A Fat Law?

There are fixed timings for meals, and the portions are decided by staff. What may surprise many is that the food here is not liquid shakes, as many people popularly think weight loss diets consists. Menus usually feature traditional Chinese meals which are prepared with less oil and sugar. Second helpings are allowed, but snacking outside the meal is strictly forbidden.

Participants are also weighed twice daily. This is done once in the morning and again in the evening. Progress is also tracked publicly, which creates a pressure to achieve the weight goal.

A Lived Experience In China's Fat Prison

A 28-year-old creator living in China, Eggeats documented her month-long stay in China's fat prison. She claimed that she paid roughly around $1,500 for the entire programme. This includes accommodation, food, and training.

In contrast to Western cities, the sum would not even cover a few weeks of boutique fitness classes. Thus in many ways, this is more practical and affordable.

Eggeats' videos show high concrete walls, iron gates and electric fences that surround the camp. Security guards are also stationed at the entrance, which is why she called this place a "Fat Prison".

However, her experience bore fruit. From 7.40pm onwards, participants are given free time and Sundays are rest days here. Toilets there are built in traditional way, where one needs to squat while using it.

For Eggeats, in the first week herself, she said she lost 2.25 kilograms, and a total of 4 kilograms by the end of second week. While the program may be strict, she still recommended the experience for anyone seeking a transition.

Obesity In China

More than half of China’s adult population is now overweight or obese, a proportion projected to rise to nearly two-thirds by 2030—affecting close to 900 million people. Acknowledging the scale of the crisis, National Health Commission Director Lei Haichao announced a nationwide three-year “Year of Weight Management” campaign on March 9, 2025, during the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, marking a move from individual responsibility to government-led, systemic action.

As you age, you start to lose your balance, however, there are certain exercises you can do to ensure that you gain strength, stabilize your joints along with maintain muscles. These exercises will help you improve your balance, reduce risks of arthritis, type 2 diabetes, cognitive decline, and could prevent early death too.

Here are 5 exercises that will help you age better and stay fitter.

Push Ups

Ensure that your hand placements is wider than shoulder width apart on the floor, with your fingers pointing forward. Start in a plank position with your body in a straight line from head to heels. Now, engage your core and glutes to hold this position.

Also Read: Inside China’s ‘Fat Prison’: Can Extreme Measures Curb Obesity?

Keep your elbows at about a 45-degree angle from your body, do not flare our too wide. As you lower your body, keep your body in a straight line. Your chest should come close to the ground or touch it.

Bend your elbows to lower your body, and press through your hands to straighten your arms to return to your starting position.

Pull Ups

Start with a pull-up bar, grab it with your hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart. Use an overhand grip pr an underhand grip. Hand from the bar with your arms fully extended and your legs straight. Engage your core to avoid swinging. Aim to keep your body still throughout the movement.

Make sure your shoulders are down and away from your ears. Engage your back muscles and pull your elbows down and back as you life yourself.

Pull yourself up till your chin is above the bar. Keep your body as straight as possible. Lower yourself in a controlled manner until your arms are fully extended again.

Also Read: After Indore Water Contamination, 5 More Indian States Report Similar Cases

Dead lift

Stand with your feet about hip width apart, with your toes pointing forward. Make sure your weight is evenly spread between your heel, the outside edge of your foot, and your big toe. Hinge at your hips with a slight bend in your knees. Keep your back flat and chest up. You can also use a double overhand grip or a mixed grip on the bar.

Ensure you back is flat and chest up, avoid rounding your lower back, as it can cause injury. Drive your hips forward as you lift, and keep your back straight. Your hips and shoulders should rise together. Keep the weight close to your body.

Push through your heels and engage your glutes and hamstrings to lift the weight. Stand tall with your shoulders back, avoid leaning back.

Squat

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, with toes pointing straight ahead or slightly outward. If you use any weights, keep them in the center.

Keep your back straight and chest up. Engage your core to stay stable. Make sure your knees follow the direction of your toes.

Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower yourself and go as low as you can, while keeping heels on the floor. Push through your heels and extend your hips and knees to stand up.

Calf Raise

Stand with your feet hip width apart. Place one or both hand on a wall, and stand on a stepper, with your heels off the stepper. Push through the balls of your feet and lift your heels off as high as you can. You will feel a stretch in your calves. Come back to the original position of your feet on the stepper, with heels off the stepper and continue doing it. With each rep you can feel your muscles engaging.