sit ups

xSophia19

Right, i was just wondering whats the best way to do sit ups? I do mine with my feeet under my bed for that extra bit of help, and i then lie down with my legs up a bit and pull my top part of the body up. Ive also got a gym ball but dont reallly trust myself doing sit ups on that as i dont wanna fall back! haha :laugh:

Any tips and help will be great thanks

4KidFather

Take care of your back!
I recommend lying down and doing leg raises first before crunching. Planks are also great - it's up part of a push-up.
Situps are a bad deal on your lower spine discs. look it up

xSophia19

Take care of your back!
I recommend lying down and doing leg raises first before crunching. Planks are also great - it's up part of a push-up.
Situps are a bad deal on your lower spine discs. look it up

Ahh rite ok! Yeah i can do like 10 sit ups and then it reallly puts alot of pressure on my back; thats when i know its time to give up! Will try those! thankyou

27strange

Form is important with situps, afterall you are trying to work your abs. So don't strain your back and arms, use your stomach muscles to pull yourself up. You can do situps with arms on the floor alongside your body or cup your hands behind your ears, or at your temples if trying to work upper abs.

Do different forms of situps. Do some reverse situps where you lay flat on your back with arms at your side, holding legs in the air bent at the knees. Roll your rear and lower back off the floor up down up down, this really works the abs. Same premise as regular situps but backwards in that the lower half of your body comes off the floor rather than the top half.

Bicycle situps are also good. As are alternating elbow to knee situps.

xSophia19

Ok thankyou

AlsDonkBoxSquat

depends on what you want to do. I've been working on my core strength so that I can do them with my feet flat on the floor and get all the way up without my feet raising. I don't stick to sit up's though, I like to mix up my core work. Here are some ideas:

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/abdominalcorestrength1/a/Best_Ab_Ex.htm

I don't know why plank ranks so low on their list, man I get a whole body shake going on when I'm in the correct plank position.

duncanryan

Situps are terrible on your back. As a physical therapist, I've seen lots of people with chronic low back pain due to doing situps. The situps put an enormous amount of pressure on the intervertebral discs in the lumbar spine, which could lead to herniation of that disc.

I agree with leg raises as long as your can keep your back flat to the ground when you're doing them. If you feel your lower back arch, you're too weak in your lower abdominals, and this could also lead to low back pain. I suggest looking up "Sahrmann Lower Abdominal Progression" on google to see where you fit with regards to lower abdominal strength.

Again, low back pain results from either too much pressure or the inability of the lower abdominals to stabilize the lumbar spine because of weakness. I would start out low and work your way up because people's lower abs are very often weak, even some of the higher level athletes have weak lower abdominals.

xxcatyxx555

heyy girl:) im a dancer and a cheerleader so i live for sit-ups lol what you wanna do is just do crunches first do 8-10 with your feet on the floor, then do 8-10 with your legs in the air and bent at the knee, and then 8-10 with your legs straight in the air, 8-10 bent at the knee, and then 8-10 with your feet on the floor. and thats it lol