7 Health Benefits Of Inchworm Exercise – How It Can Help You Stay Fit In Summer?

Have you heard about the Inchworm exercise? It gives you a little portion of everything. It does not just help your body strengthen the anterior chain muscles; the exercise also helps your body stretch the posterior chain muscles. 

Since the routine targets your whole body in one shot, the exercise routine can get your blood flowing. This naturally makes the routine an excellent alternative that anyone can perform right before a session of either a high-intensity interval routine for training or even strength training. 

The movements involved end up reflecting its name literally – an inchworm. So, without wasting any more time, let’s learn more about this routine. Keep reading for more.

About The Inchworm Exercise: What Is Inchworm Exercise?

If you were wondering what is an inchworm exercise, you have come to the right place because we are here to clear your doubts. 

The Inchworm exercise is a dynamic exercise whose basic purpose is simply to warm up the complete muscular system. It primarily focuses on increasing the body’s flexibility, especially before high-intensive training. 

This exercise routine not only increases the flexibility of the hamstrings area but also increases strength in the chest area and the deltoids. The best part? The routine requires practically no equipment, making this a budget-friendly alternative that’s easy to perform! It works out your arms, core, chest, and upper back. 

The routine is a pretty effective exercise. Since it’s one of the best full-body stretches, it is considered ideal for stretching your calves and hamstrings.

So, if you haven’t been doing these regularly, then it’s time to start considering incorporating them into your daily routine.

The Benefits Of Inchworm Exercise

The Inchworms workout routine has several benefits. Once you check out the benefits of the Inchworm exercise, you will understand why we insist on these oldies but goldies. So scroll down and discover all the benefits of this crazy exercise routine. 

1. Versatility

The inchworm exercise is one solid movement you can seamlessly add to any workout routine. Since the routine can both stretch and strengthen different groups of muscles simultaneously, it is positioned ideally for inclusion as part of any active warm-up or even a high-intensity interval routine for training.

2. Stretches And Strengthens Various Muscles 

Another great benefit of the Inchworm exercise routine is how it stretches and strengthens your muscles simultaneously. 

The movement’s most strengthening part is entering, exiting, and holding the plank. While you start performing this part of the routine, you will notice how your stabilizing muscles support your body weight.

3. Perfect As A Warm-Up:

If your baseline strength of the stabilizing muscles is good, then it is highly unlikely that you will gain vast amounts of strength via this routine. However, since it engages with major groups of muscles, it is evident that the inchworm routine is perfect for a warm-up that you can do right before some strength training that’s relatively more taxing.

4. Keep That Heart Rate Constant:

If you are in the middle of interval training that’s high in intensity, you can always count on the Inchworm exercise to be a part of the ‘rest’ intervals in between. It keeps your heart rate constant while ensuring your entire cardiovascular system gets a little break.

5. Prepares The Body Physically And Mentally:

The whole point of having an active warm-up routine is simply to prepare the body both physically and mentally for whatever training that’s about to follow.

For instance, if you were planning to incorporate any strength training regime for your lower body, then your warm-up should target all the similar muscles, but only without any added resistance.

6. Prevents Injuries

Another benefit of the inchworm push-up is that it’s not just ideal as a warm-up for preparing your body for what’s about to come but also for preventing your body from undergoing any injury. 

The Inchworm exercise stretches your muscle groups without holding a single stretch for any set period. As a result, it wheels your workout routine and prevents your body from injuries.

7. Targets

The best part about doing the Inchworm exercise is how it utilizes your entire body weight for 0targeting pretty much all your major muscles. Try including air squats, high knees, lunges, and lateral slides right before your next training routine for boosting strength in your body.

The Inchworm Exercise: Common Mistakes People Make!

To be honest, any mistake that you make with this particular exercise will hardly cause you harm. While there’s always the potential for some injury when you are exercising regularly, the inchworm exercise is not harmful as such. 

But when you make mistakes while doing this exercise, it just stops you from entirely benefiting from the same. Typically, this takes place when you move without thinking or too quickly, which, in turn, makes the exercise sloppy. 

In such cases, just slow down and instead focus on moving your whole body – from the head to the toes – keeping your steps smooth and under control.

1. Moving Too Quickly:

The inchworm exercise is not exactly known for its speed. So, you have to remember that while doing this exercise. 

In fact, collapsing your whole torso quickly toward the ground while your hands are reaching for the floor, jerking your entire back for stand-up, or even sprinting your feet or hands forward are great ways of potentially pulling a muscle. 

You could also miss out on the complete stretching and strengthening benefits of this exercise. Each part of the movement takes a few seconds to complete. So, just try to inhale and exhale while counting to six for every phase of the exercise – ensure that you keep it slow and steady. 

You can just exhale to count to six while reaching toward the floor with your hands. Then, you can inhale to the same count while stepping towards the plank with your hands. Finally, exhale again to the same count while walking, moving your feet forward towards your hands, before inhaling to the same count while rolling your torso to stand up. 

2. Craning Your Neck Forward:

It is very common to look towards the direction you are moving. So, while reaching the grounds with your hands and entering the plank position, you might be tempted to look ahead while moving your feet forward and rising to stand. And just like that, you might end up craning your neck. 

Unfortunately, this particular action will put your spine’s alignment in trouble. For a majority of people, it rarely causes any serious issues. But it can definitely cause a painful neck strain. This becomes even more true when you go through the whole movement too fast or without any control.

So, just pay attention to your body while doing this exercise. If you find yourself looking forward or up in a particular way that might cause a sore neck strain, just move your head slowly to a neutral posture.

3. Not Engaging Your Core:

It is relatively easy to forget all about your core while you are doing the Inchworm exercise since you rely more on your legs and arms for supporting your body in every phase. This is very true for people who move too quickly. 

Here, the issue is that you will need support from your core if you want back protection from any potential injury by blocking out any unwanted spine movement.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

And It’s A Wrap!

Now that you have a fair idea of ‘what is inchworm exercise’ as well as the inchworm exercise benefits, you can easily incorporate these into your daily routine. Moreover, it is best to start doing the Inchworm exercise as a part of your daily routine. 

Don’t forget to let us know your thoughts on the same in the comments below.

Read Also:

1. 7 Killer Summer Body Workout Ideas To Bring Your Body In Shape
2. 7 Health Benefits Of Side Plank – How It Can Help You Stay Fit In Summer?
3. 7 Health Benefits Of Superman Pull Up – How It Can Help You Stay Fit In Summer?