Sit Ups

[dhruv 0]

Ok so people opinions are divided between if sit ups are good or bad for you.In my opinion sit ups are good if you do them right, but if you still do them right you can still hurt your back so you should stop when you feel pain in your back. Do not get mistaken if you feel pain on your stomach/abs this is working the abs and is good for you. The harder you work the stronger the burn on your abs and if you workout while you feel this, it might hurt but your working it more rather then if you don't feel nothing. Sit up's are also argued to be the best or not the best way to get a well formed abs. I personally think it is not.I think bicycle crunches are the best.

Edited May 24, 2008 by dhruv (see edit history)

[thecolorchangingfedora 0]

I've never heard that sit ups were bad for you, just that they didn't really do anything. As far as bicycle crunches go, I think I've heard something about those. Not really sure, though.

[chriso_cd 0]

so heres the thing... situps are good for you! and if it hurts your back at first, thats ok, because that means that your back muscles (especially the lower back, just above your butt) just arent used to the stress of situps... so pain at first is ok, only if pain presists after a good amount of time is it bad. but situps are not the only ab exercise you should do!

 

your abs are made up of different sections and different muscles... it is not just one big slab of muscle that can be formed! the key is working the area from every possible angle so as to reveal the most detail and get the most strength. It should be added however, that you also have to have a low body fat percentage to see the results of your ab training.

 

as far as exercises go, there are a variety of them to work your abs from every concieveable angle, and they should be done in conjunction with cardio (preferably after) to get the desired results. the best type of cardio to see the fastest results is HIIT... high intensity interval training. this is where you do cardio exercise (like running or bike riding for example) at a very very fast rate for 20 to 30 seconds then slow down to a medium rate for 15-25 seconds then repeate the cycle for 15-20 minutes---- this will torch fat like crazy with out your body breaking down muscle instead!

[Striker9 0]

Situps are really good for your abs, but mostly for the upper part of your abs which is usually much easier to work than the lower part. In order to have a 6-pack muscled abs, you need to work every single part of your abs. And you have to do cardio so that you'd remove the extra fats off it. And about hurting your lower part of your back, this is very normal at the beginning, because your lower back muscles would be weak and couldn't handle all the pressure done by situps. But with time, your muscles gain strength and the pain is gone. But in case the pain persisted then that means you're doing the situps the wrong way and you should be careful; I suggest that you would consult your coach about the right way to do it. Also, ask your coach about how to work your lower abs, I don't know what they call the move in English but it's basically that you lay down on your back (preferably on a bench) and start moving your stretched (or partially stretched) legs up and down... when you start this move you won't be able to do more than 10 reps at the beginning, but with time you'll be able to do much more... once you can do around 40-50 reps then that means you've achieved great progress in working your lower abs... my friend can do 3 sets of 100 reps, so I guess you can imagine how strong his lower abs are. But most importantly, you need to do cardio cuz if you don't, no matter how hard you work your abs, they still wouldn't show unless you remove all the fats off your abs.

[comingsoon27 0]

I've heard a bunch of things about sit-ups. I think that sometimes the reason you feel pain and stress in your back is because your core and abs are not yet strong enough to fully handle your body weight and your back has to help out. Also, I've been told that just doing sit-ups while laying on the ground is not nearly as beneficial as doing them on a fitness ball for example. A fitness ball allows you to move your abs in their full range of motion, thus maximizing the results of your sit-ups. Laying on the ground and doing them gets in the way of this, as the farthest you can go is when your back is touching the ground.

[thorne 0]

I think you can argue that any exercise may be bad for you, because if you do it improperly, you could hurt yourself. But as long as you're moving your body in a way it was meant to be moved, you should be fine (within reason, of course). Any type of exercise will hurt at first if you aren't strong enough, but doing it will get you stronger.It's just important not to overdo anything or strain yourself. As long as you're using common sense and listening to your body (there's a difference between pain that is building your muscles and pain that indicates you're pushing yourself way to far), you should be fine.