Assuming you’re doing them properly, not bouncing and all that, and lying on a slight incline for good mesure too…
Do they actually do Anything for your abs?
no, but they work wonders on your balls!
Apprentice Yes, Sit-ups are actually the best thing for your abdominal muscle. The movement will stimulate the Rectus Abdominals (muscles). Most people can’t do many sit-ups with proper form so they think crunches are better. Even, then they still find a way to screw up their form on crunches.
In Health,
Silas C.
yes.
Forget the incline. Just drop to the floor bend your knees, hook your feet under something to anchor you. Now, rip off as many reps of Sit-ups as you can in one minute. rest for about one minute then do a second set of as many as you can do. Now repeat this process for a third and final set. Wait until the next morning and you will know unequivocally whether they “do anything for your abs.”
Yes, situps do work the abs. Situps have also been criticized for working the hip flexors. They also put high compressive load on the spine.
Working hip flexors and abs in the same exercise is not necessarily bad. But I feel that if there is a large imbalance between the two working muscles – which is very common with hip flexors and abs – that an exercise that works both can perpetuate the imbalance and even make it worse, while the weak link prevents progress in the overall exercise.
Agree with andersons. I never do or recommend abs with feet anchored unless people have weaker hip flexors than low abs (virtually no one does) or they have learnt to isolate the lower abs and now need to intergrate the hip flexors as well. I dont understand the post two earlier about doing them as fast as you can for one minute. The abs are fast twitch muscle fibres and if you are going to trian them quickly then you shouldn’t do much more than 10-12 secs. The use of something like a tornado ball here is great. Also if you are doing them explosively you might want longer rest than one minute.
agree with anderson.
if your hip flexors over-power your abs (mine certainly do), incline situp are probably not the best option.
How about weighted swissball crunches? hip flexors are largely taken out of the equation and spinal load is lessened.
again the exercise should be depenedent on the end goal. Assess that first then pick an appropriate exercise.
stretch your hip flexors really good before you do situps and it will help take them out of the exercise a little bit.
The single best ab movement I ever did was a Roman Chair Hold Crunch. If you don’t have a roman chair bring a bench to a dumbell rack and lock your feet underneath it so your legs are bent as close to 90 as possible. The key is to hold the crunch form throughout the movement and as you lower your back, crunch as hard as possible then hold for 5 seconds, repeat. I usually do 4x10 holding a dumbell by the sides directly underneath the chin. I suggest a dumbell over a plate laying on your chest because the point of resistance is raised higher resulting in the complete load of the dumbell being used. Try it without resistance the first time. This movement works for the upper half of the abs for the most part.
A point I’ve recently learned: Feeling sore around the navel is NOT proof you’ve worked your abs. That soreness can result from working your hip flexors!