Why you should NEVER do sit-ups

It seems quite ironic discussing this as less than 4 years ago, I left the forces after 6 years of active service and sit ups were and still are an exercise of choice.

I'm really not sure why they are and it amazes me that they continue to be given by trainers as an exercise. Even more shockingly, I spoke to a chap this morning who mentioned that he joined a large corporate gym some time ago and was given a programme by a fitness trainer. After explaining that he had back pain, his trainer continued to give him sit ups and further awful patterns that put pressure on the lower back.

Last week I saw a very popular military style fitness company getting dozens of paying customers to do sit ups in a field. The exact scenario that a few years ago was familiar to me - but I wasn't paying for this and neither should you be.

Let's have a look at what a sit up is actually doing to your body and why it is no good.

1. The movement begins with lying down, legs bent and feet flat. The significance of this is that the hips aren't fully extended meaning that you cannot fully engage in abdominal range. Any fitness professional who understands anatomy will know this. Without engaging in full range, repetitious patterns will serve to shortern and imbalance the involved muscles.
2. Because the starting position is resting, there is no requirement for the inner unit of the core to stabilise the hips or spine. This means that the phasic muscles causing the movement will compensate for inner instability and be put under greater stress.
3. The movement required is forward flexion of the spine with the extended lever of the upper torso acting as the load. This puts an enormous amount of pressure on lumbar spine. Think about people who suffer back injury, how many people 'put their back out' whilst bending over? This is the exact same movement but with more direct gravitational pull directed onto the lumbar spine.
4. The sit up takes you into deep forward flexion of the spine and then returns to a lying position. Because hip flexion and forward spinal flexion are often concurrent patterns, there is muscular cross over in which areas are working and creating the movements. With the hips being flexed from the start and the hip flexor group being commonly dominant just as the upper abdominals are (rectus abdominus), these areas are most likely to innovate the pattern leaving the weaker, lower stomach (transverse abdominus) completely redundant. Over time and recurrence of this pattern, these muscles will distort posture, pull hip alignment into anterior tilt, pull shoulders forwards and leave high risk of low back injury.

So, what should replace this "ab" exercise? Here are some tips that will help you avoid this problem:

• Stick with compound patterns that use the whole body from standing or functional positions
• Avoid machines that require you to sit down or lie down
• Learn how to breathe abdominally during strength exercises (pilates or good strength coaches can help)
• Look to engage your inner and outer core during all strength exercises
• Come along to one of our sessions (http://www.outfit-uk.com/)

Not just back pain but abdominal herniation and herniated discs have been reported as resulting from sit ups. Remember, when it comes to weight loss, toning and conditioning your body, you cannot spot reduce weight. Good nutrition and seeing the body as a whole unit will be much more helpful to get the shape you want.

Phill

References:
http://www.coachr.org/outer.htm
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/185016.php
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B83W8-4W20Y86-D&_user=10&_coverDate=02%2F28%2F2009&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1322336905&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=b61dccc4049d9b6381ed91a3e6f09d98