Many fitness trainers have explained to people that sit ups are damaging the spine. But how did they get that idea? You would imagine that you see many crippled athletes with great abs. Do you see so many people like that, with great abs but damaged backs? I haven’t seen those people.
Actually, I have done some research and I found out that “never do sit ups on the ab workout” saying was developed in a lab. The EMG studies showed that sit ups are stressing the spine more than the crunches. But what does that mean? Just because it is harder to do and it involves a bigger stress we have to sit on cotton balls and forget about sit ups? How do we know the truth? Isn’t it right that every sport exercise is stressing the body? Isn’t that what sports is all about?
I think that sports are about stressing your entire body so that it pushes the muscles and the spine and everything else, in order to stay fit. There are no easy workouts because just by lifting one hand and then the other you will not lose weight or stay in shape. You need to make an effort. The stress you apply on the body, within safety limits, is the one that gets your body stronger and fit.
Let’s investigate the sit ups more. The involvement of the hip flexors in the sit up motion is the thing that makes some people say that sit ups are bad. They also suggest that this activation leads to compressive forces on the spine. They say the movement should be avoided by I think that is just an overreaction.
Athletes and fitness people have been doing sit ups for ages now and they have reached amazing goals. In all the history of the fitness industry, for over 16 years, there isn’t a single case where sit ups have caused back injuries.
Some trainers also say: “since the crunches do not affect the spine, why not use only the crunches and forget about the sit ups?” But eliminating a perfectly good move is not the correct way of thinking.
In a sit up, the abs are responsible for the bottom part of the whole movement. The spine is flexed after the “crunch” part of that movement and the flexors take over at the end. This I when the hip flexors provide most of that movement but during that time the abs are working isometrically and the contraction is contributing to the positive training effect.
Also, sit ups are great because they create a caloric deficit. In a sit up you need to move through a large part of the motion and that burns calories. A sit up burns many more calories than the crunches do. If you want those great 6 pack abs, sit ups are the way to do it and not crunches. They will help you lose that unwanted fat in no time because they use more muscle groups and in a more efficient way.
Due to this, all the research that I have done, and all my experience in the fitness area, I sternly recommend push ups as a simple, efficient and great way to shape your body and those six pack abs. So go ahead and do sit ups and have a beautiful body.
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The following are ten things to avoid when performing exercise for the abs.
1. Do not use a machine or contraption of any kind to exercise the abs, body weight and medicine balls are more than sufficient. No contraption or machine will ever work as well as a perfectly performed curl-up performed on the floor.
2. Do not pull on your neck with your hands while performing curl-ups this may cause excessive strain on the muscles and vertebrae and prevents the training of the neck flexor muscles. Rather place the fingertips on the ears.
3. Do not hoist your body up by throwing the arms and shoulders forward. Rather imagine having double-backed tape stuck to your spine and the back of your head and peeling the back slowly off the floor. Starting by peeling the back of the head, then the neck and then upper back off the floor. If you find it impossible to curl up to a 60-degree angle from the floor with the fingers touching the ears, try performing curl-ups with hands on the floor by the sides, pointing straight ahead or folded across the chest. Even laying propped up on a gradient of some kind will help, as this moves the center of gravity further towards the muscle origin, making the exercise easier.
4. Do not perform double straight leg lowering exercises for the lower abdominals and never allow them to be thrown down by a partner. This action can strain the lower back and actually stretch the abdominals and make them weaker. Rather perform double-knees to the chest in the lying position: hold the legs at 90 degrees of hip and knee flexion and then gently peel the tail bone off the floor (not the entire back) to cause a posterior tilting of the pelvis. Also, try performing scissor actions with the legs, but only if the low back remains flat against the floor.
5. Do not perform curl-ups with a straight back. This will only focus on the hip flexor muscles (iliopsoas) and may strain the lower back. Keep the spine as round as possible both during the upward movement and the downward movement.
6. Do not perform curl-ups with a “hole” in the lower back – this may strain the back, stretch the abdominals and actually make them weaker. Before starting the exercise, perform a drawing in maneuver and tilt the pelvis posteriorly by pressing the lower back into the floor. (Imagine trying to squash a grape under the low back to make sure the lower back remains flat throughout the exercise).
7. Do not perform curl-ups with excessively bent knees, especially if you have tight hip flexors and an excessive forward tilt of the pelvis. It is a common misconception that flexing the hips puts the hip flexor muscles “on slack” making them less able to contribute to the exercise, and targeting the abdominals more. (This assumption is false since the iliacus muscle spans a single joint and can work quite efficiently even near full hip flexion). Repeatedly, exercising in this manner may cause these muscles to tighten and shorten even more. Flex (bend) at the knee and hip only enough to allow the lower back to flatten into the floor.
8. Do not perform curl-ups on an excessively soft or springy surface e.g. a mattress, trampoline (?) or thick foam mat as this will assist in the exercise or make the flattening of the lower back more difficult.
9. Do not fix the feet under a bed or have anyone hold them when performing multiple curl-ups as this will allow for a majority of the sit-up to be caused by the hip flexor (groin) muscles. If the abdominals fatigue or are not strong enough to hold the back flat, the hip flexors will cause an forward tilt of the pelvis and the development of a “hole” in the lower back as discussed in 6.
10. Do not avoid doing abdominal exercises. Many exercisers are reluctant to perform abdominal exercises because they experience more discomfort in their neck and lower back than in their abdominals. Use something like an electronic abs belt to augment and support your training.
Follow the suggestions and alternatives presented here (and lose bodyfat with a good quality supplement like acai burn) and you’ll be well on your way to obtaining the coveted “six pack” abs.
Greg Nesbit has written many helpful and informative articles on the subjects of ab belts, health, diet, weight loss and wellbeing. If you require more information on
Many new entrants to the gym will walk into the gym with the exciting goal of doing crunches until their abdominal muscles are a svelte collection of rippling muscles, cut out of the former dough that was their midsection. They’ll enter the abdominal training area – despite being 30% body fat – and do an hour of crunches, several times per week. Over the months, their midsections will become harder – under the fat – but to the naked eye, they’ll still be sporting the same spare tire they started with. And in some cases, it might stick out a bit further, due to the increased size of the abdominal muscles underneath the layer of fat.
There is no such thing as spot reduction. The body fat, which covers your body, does so in a fairly uniform fashion. While there are some areas, which tend to hold more body fat reserves (waistline in men and legs/glutes in women), those brand new abdominal muscles are never going to emerge until the body fat over them – and on top of the entire body – is removed. New trainers to the gym don’t realize this fact. They walk right past the cardio machines and enter the ab area, day after day. Little do they know that spending a few hours each week in the cardio area would make their abdominal effort display so much more effectively. Even more so, their chest, arms, back, and legs would look much better too, with lower body fat levels.
There is one misleading factor, which causes people to believe in the myth of spot reduction. Let’s say you’re a fairly well trained athlete, sitting at 12% body fat. You begin training abdominals religiously. They will begin to look better and better. They will stand out. You will look leaner, even if you are not. Your midsection will look tighter, even if the body fat is he same. This is because at 12% body fat, the muscle growth will create separation. Separation is defined as the disconnection of muscle groups. The more advanced goal – definition – comes when a single muscle group is able to be separated visually, and only occurs and very low body fat levels.
There is no such thing as body fat spot reduction. Only a combination of weight training and cardiovascular exercise will lead to a highly muscular body with low enough body fat levels for the muscle groups to be displayed.
Dane Fletcher is the world’s most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit www.BodybuildingToday.com, the bodybuilding and fitness authority site with hundreds of articles available FREE to help you meet your goals.
Free tips on getting six pack abs: www.sixpackabsexercises.com How to Use Training Zones to Get Six Pack Abs: – Use a training zone of 8 to 12 reps. – When you can do 12 reps of a given exercise, upgrade it (make it harder) or pick a harder exercise for the same muscle group. – Your new abs exercise should be just hard enough so that you can do 8 reps with it. – Keep training your abs with your new exercise until you can do 12 reps. – Start again from step 2. Training zones fast track your way to six pack abs by reminding you that you need to make your exercises harder to improve. The harder the abs exercise, the faster it’ll get you six pack abs. Good luck! -Carl Juneau PS Free tips on getting six pack abs, visit www.sixpackabsexercises.com
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Get free tips on getting six pack abs at: www.sixpackabsexercises.com If you haven’t seen part 1, watch it at: www.youtube.com This video reveals why you should do between 8 and 12 reps per set when you train your abs. Doing 8 to 12 reps puts you in the hypertrophy-type training zone. This is the training zones that helps you get six pack abs the fastest, because it helps your abdominal muscles grow. As they grow, your abdominal muscles will become more defined. They will show more, and that’s how you get six pack abs.
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If you are like me getting divest of abdomen fat is responsibility lone seeing that far seeing that dieting is concerned. I get found a a small number of constructive tips so as to can greatly build up your progress. I fought this battle instead of years right away I know how to beat it.
Tip #1. I get found so as to you no more than need to achieve a pair of besieged exercises to build up your mid-section. Nearby is really nix need to pass away to a leisure center before achieve elongated complicated keep fit routines. The main is obvious crunches no problem you desire need to achieve crunches as this helps to tighten a tone the abdominal fortification. By matching the abs your waist desire grow to be slimmer closer. The other abdomen buster is torso twists. Twists get been around instead of a elongated clock but seem to get lost popularity recently. This unadorned keep fit is still noble instead of low-calorie your waistline. These exercises achieve not need to take place made everyday. Your abdominal muscles are like several other muscle working them each other daylight is prosperity.
These two unadorned exercises desire knock down your abdomen.
Tip #2. Your diet is an principal part of low-calorie your waist. By simply trimming a a small number of calories everyday your results desire embark on to parade. I regularly solely substitute a a small number of of the things so as to I plague all daylight and pressurize somebody into healthier choices. I plague a group of fruit as a replacement for of sugary food and drink. I remove back on processed carbohydrates. These would include breads pasta rice and potatoes. If I plague several of these it is each time the sum total wheat variety. Achieve not pass away on a crash diet the goal is to take place able to uphold the loss concluded the elongated haul.
Tip #3. Supplements. I get tried many supplements to grow better results. The single preeminent supplement I get tried is Hoodia Gordonii. Hoodia is a powerful passion suppressant so as to has nix recognized part belongings. This supplement can commit you a definite improvement as it comes to bringing up the rear so as to abdomen fat.
