Bring one knee towards your armpit while straightening the other leg. Begin the movement similar to pedaling a bicycle.Keep your hands behind your head and lift your feet off the floor while raising your knees to a 90-degree angle.Engage your core muscles, drawing in your ab muscles and stabilizing your spine.Your lower back should be flush with the ground, and your hands should be behind your head. Lie flat on the ground with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.Overall, sit-ups are best if you'd like to work more than your abs alone and if you don't have any back, neck, or spine problems that may be aggravated by the exercise.īicycle crunches can really get you to feel the burn in your abs. "This is because thinner columns have less stress when bending." "Those people with very heavy skeletons will break into back pain sooner doing sit-ups than those with thinner, more flexible spines," McGill says.
Some people have a slender spinal column, and others have a thick spinal column where the vertebrae are simply larger - for example, think of a gymnast versus a linebacker. Your risk for injury depends on your body type and medical history, according to Stuart McGill, an expert in lower back disorders and professor emeritus in the department of kinesiology at the University of Waterloo. And because sit-ups also work your hip flexors, these muscles can become tight, pulling on your lower spine and possibly causing lower back pain. However, sit-ups may risk potential injury to your back, because the move pushes your curved spine against the floor, which puts extra pressure on your spine. Sit-ups also work your hip flexors, the muscles that run from your thighs to your lower back. The move is particularly effective at engaging the rectus abdominis, the muscle that runs vertically along the front of your torso. Plank holds and anti-rotation exercises are examples of stabilization moves.A sit-up is an abdominal exercise that strengthens the muscles in your core - and beyond. You should also choose stabilization exercises that address the transverse abdominis deep within your core. Many mat Pilates classes are also far more effective than the classic crunch in terms of targeting the rectus abdominis and the obliques, reported a November 2005 study from the IDEA Health and Fitness Association. A study commissioned by the American Council on Exercise in 2001 determined that moves such as the bicycle crunch, in which you lie on the floor with your legs elevated and bring opposite shoulder to opposite knee, and the captain's chair, an apparatus that looks like a high, seatless chair, are more than 200 percent more effective in targeting both of these abdominal muscle groups. Crunches do target the rectus abdominis, the front sheath of the abdominal wall, and the obliques at the sides of your waist, but not as effectively as other exercise. When you do lose weight, regular strength training for your core will reveal a taut and lean middle. Although they don't burn fat, abdominal exercises do offer postural, athletic, functional and toning benefits.
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