# The Truth About Sit-Ups



## K1 (Mar 11, 2013)

by Charles Poliquin

A look at the controversy surrounding this popular exercise. Strength coaches and personal trainers have had a love/hate relationship with sit-ups for a long time. In the early years of physical culture these exercises were staples of any fitness program. At one point, people began worrying that sit-ups could cause back problems, and so the exercise was replaced with crunches, then Swiss ball crunches. Then came the generation of personal trainers and strength coaches who tried to bring back variations of sit-ups as part of their “core training” workouts. What is the truth? Do sit-ups cause more harm than good?

First, consider that an individual’s body proportions influence sit-up performance. A person with a long torso and relatively short legs has a much more difficult time performing sit-ups than someone with a relatively short torso and long legs. This could explain why some individuals can perform sit-ups with relatively no discomfort, while others continually experience problems from performing the exercise.

The truth is a real connection does exist between the sit-up and back pain. It concerns the involvement of the psoas, a hip flexor muscle that runs from the front of the upper thigh to the lower back. The contraction of this muscle not only tilts the pelvis anteriorly (i.e., forward and down), which may cause discomfort and pain by itself, but also increases the compressive forces on the disks. This problem is compounded when the feet are anchored, so this practice should be avoided.

Bending the legs and flaring the knees out are ways used to try to reduce the involvement of the hip flexors, but this simply works them through a shorter range of motion. One reason that many soft-tissue practitioners, such as those certified with Active Release Techniques®, have success with many back pain patients is that they know how to treat the psoas to restore its normal range of motion and allow the pelvis to resume normal alignment.

It has been theorized that over time, sit-ups can increase the risk of bulging disks or disk herniation. Stuart M. McGill, a professor at the University of Waterloo and author of three books and nearly 200 scientific papers on back pain, believes that the continual flexing of the spine with sit-ups could deteriorate the spine and cause chronic pain and weakness. In this sense, you might say that every sit-up performed moves the trainee one rep closer to disk injury.

Another concern relates to the cervical disks. For a non-overweight individual, the weight of the head is about 7.5 percent of their bodyweight. For the average, untrained population, holding the head off the floor with an isometric contraction of the neck muscles during high-repetition sit-ups can result in neck strain – and the risk is greater on a Swiss ball due to the increased range of motion (and it’s especially risky if the trainee allows the neck to go into hyperextension). Resting one’s head on the floor between repetitions helps, but there are other options.

One recommended solution to neck strain used to be to clasp the hands behind the head, but this can result in individuals pulling on the head for leverage and thereby possibly injuring the neck muscles and connective tissues. This method also increases the degree of flexion of the spine. Having the elbows flared out rather than tucked forward makes it more difficult to apply force, but it’s still possible to cause damage. Also, raising your upper arms causes a reflex contraction of the muscles behind the head to stabilize the shoulders.

One popular solution in the 1990s was the use of ab-roller devices, which were heavily promoted on infomercials – although the same effect could be achieved with the use of a towel. The best solution is to position your arms in front of you, elbows down, and place your hands on your forehead and apply gentle pressure. The result is that the muscles on the front of the neck will contract, causing the muscles on the back of the neck to relax.

To do sit-ups or not to do sit-ups; that is the question. Let’s make this easy: The muscular midsections of powerlifters and weightlifters are proof that simply performing total-body lifts such as squats, power cleans and deadlifts can develop impressive abdominals. Although sit-ups have been a popular exercise for the abs and some people do not experience any back or neck pain from the exercise, the fact is an individual can develop tremendous abdominals without ever performing a sit-up. Therefore, you have to ask yourself, are sit-ups worth the risk?

*Hardcore Ab Training – Challenging exercises to develop a powerful six-pack*

Hardcore absOne of the most popular topics in the area of physical and athletic fitness today is abdominal training. The current generation worships “Abs of Steel.” Problem is, most of what we hear about abdominal training is untrue. In fact, there is so much misinformation that it’s difficult to separate fact from fiction – and from fraud. But we love a challenge, so let’s get started.

Despite hundreds of heavily marketed exercise toys that claim to develop the abdominals, the fact is an athlete can develop tremendous abdominals without ever performing a sit-up, crunch or anything involving fancy circus balls or other gimmicks. Core training, to use the popular buzzword, doesn’t have to be complex training. As evidenced by the muscular midsections of powerlifters and weightlifters, simply performing total-body lifts such as squats, power cleans and deadlifts can develop impressive abdominals. Peer-reviewed research supports this real-world evidence.

A study published in Physical Therapy in Sport in 2011 found that competitive female weightlifters had significantly stronger internal and external oblique muscles than a recreationally active control group. More specifically, the internal obliques were the thickest, followed by external, and then by transverse abdominis. This is a significant finding, as it represents a “structurally balanced” relationship.

We should note here that there is a controversy about the popular Swiss ball crunch exercise. This exercise works the rectus abdominis through an extreme range of motion; unfortunately, an overemphasis on this exercise could cause lower back pain and may create a muscle imbalance that may increase the risk of abdominal injuries and hernias. Further, and this is true for athletes who display an excessive forward tilt of the pelvis (i.e., lower cross syndrome), performing Swiss ball crunches could create shearing forces on the spine that could injure the disks. As for regular crunches, after a few sessions the exercise often becomes too easy to produce any strength training effects.

Although our position is that specific abdominal training is unnecessary for most trainees, we also understand that many trainees insist on supplementing their training with an occasional abdominal exercise. For those of you who decide to go this route, here are a few suggestions other than traditional crunch exercises.

One exercise you might consider is the single-leg jackknife sit-up (known for its popularity among Russian sprinters because it works the hip flexors and rectus abdominis in a coordinated manner such as occurs in running). In contrast to the classic jackknife sit-up, with this variation one leg is bent and the entire foot is in contact with the floor, with the other leg straight. With your arms held at your sides (or overhead and brought forward, lift your leg and trunk simultaneously as rapidly as possible. Perform an equal number of reps for each side, and increase resistance with the use of wrist and ankle weights.

Two more exercises are reverse sit-ups, with legs bent and with legs straight. With the bent-leg version, you start with the legs bent (or crossed at the ankle, such as with the Garhammer raise) and then lift the hips straight up. As you become stronger, perform the exercise with your legs straight. Although both these exercises activate the entire area of the rectus abdominis, they also strongly affect the subumbilical (below the bellybutton) area of the abdominals. Turning the feet inward, has been to increase the electrical activity of the rectus abdominis at the expense of the hip flexors.

In the weightroom, two great exercises are pullovers and straight-arm lat pulldowns. Although pretty much any pullover will affect the abs, you can perform a particularly effective variation by anchoring your feet on a sit-up board with your knees bent; pull the weight behind your head and then return to the start. The key is to keep your trunk stationary – you can make the exercise harder by leaning backward and holding heavier objects. As for straight-arm lat pulldowns performed on a high-pulley machine, the late biomechanist Dr. Mel Siff claimed that this exercise works the rectus abdominis muscle more strongly than sit-ups do! All front lever type of exercises, whether on rings or high bars are also superb for that purpose.

We maintain that the presence of specific ab training in a workout is usually a sign of faulty program design and too often a misuse of valuable exercise time. However, for those who don’t want to miss a trick, we’ve presented a few hardcore exercises you can occasionally add to your exercise mix. But the bottom line is that if you want abs of steel, you need to pump the iron!


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