Tried three sets of unweighted decline situps yesterday, could barely get 5 on the 1st set, then 4 on the following sets.
At 300 lbs, I have a long way to go before doing them correctly. Another goal to ber eached, along with 1 chin up and more than 1 dip…
bourbonboy is right. You can have a hip flexor imbalance to the point where they dominate a movement no matter what. It is not just a strength, but a motor control issue of coordination. Still, the movement Patman described is very hard on the low back. 80-90% of people develop back pain at some point; we’re not talking remote possibilities here. I don’t see why’d you’d want to hold a plate behind your head during a decline sit-up. Just don’t do that.
It is a big mistake to try to be macho about pain and imbalance issues. If you have an imbalance that causes undue pain or risk of injury during a certain exercise, DON’T do that exercise until you fix the imbalance. Don’t think you HAVE to do some exercise just because it’s in a program. If you could work one-on-one with a top trainer like Chad Waterbury or others who write on this site, they would notice that certain exercises only worsen your imbalances, rather than address them. They would tailor your exercises to YOUR needs. You need to tailor your exercises.
What types of stretches does one perform for the illio/psoas musculature?
Andersons is right, I’m finally getting that through my thick skull now. Years of small nagging pains in shoulder, back, foot, ankles, and i just kept ignoring them. “I’m tough” “I have high tolerance for pain” etc , they’re all bullshit! Take care of your body and love it, its the only one you get!
Patman,
If you want to avoid the hip flexor issue altogether, I recommend Janda Sit-ups. I’m sure there’s a pic of this exercise within the archives.
GashMan,
Here’s a link to a picture of a stretch that will hit the iliopsoas.
Chad,
I found 2 different descriptions of Janda Sit-ups: one that involves a partner holding below the calves, and one that says not to anchor the feet at all. What do you recommend?
Last night I tried doing a sit-up without anchoring my feet… can’t do it, my upper body must weigh more than my legs. The only way I could get up with my arms crossed on my chest was to extend at the knee and lift my feet off the floor.
Hi Patman, yes, Janda situps do eliminate the hip flexors, but they do not address the problem of your lower abs not being able to counteract the hip flexors (and maybe even the pull of the lats when you raise your arms). Janda situps isolate the upper abs which will, more than likely, make the problems worse. Many therapists use that situp to test your upper ab strength. Not many people have weak upper abs!! How many people that go to the gym could be carrying a bit of extra weight but yet when they flex you can easily see they upper abs but none of the others? The reason that I believe these wont help you is because as your upper abs get stronger they will pull you into spinal flexion more and more (I am meaning your posture). You need the kinetic chain in balance. There is so much talk here about the posterior chain, and rightly so. But if the glutes dont fire properly then you need to go back to isolation exercises to strengthen it and isolate it before carrying on with exercises that intergrate all 3. Otherwise all of the stress goes into the low back and hamstrings. That is why so many people have reoccuring hamstring injuries, the cause wasn’t addressed. The same is true for the neck flexors, trunk flexors and hip flexors. Anyway, here is a link to a hip flexor stretch. Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION. Scroll down to the hip flexor stretch. If you need to progress the exercise then you can stretch your arms out over your head and/or twist your upper body away from the back leg. Just remember to do the pelvic tilt during the stretch (as mentioned in the article).
I only just read your reply about not being able to do a situp without anchoring your feet. In this case those situps problably would work great for you. I used to do a thousand situps a day with my feet anchored and it did nothing for my stomach, but man did my quads (at the time I didn’t realise it was my hip flexors) get a workout. I believe this to be the main cause of my backpain years ago. Anywho, once you get the hang of the janda sit up with your arms across your chest you can progress the exercise by moving the hands behind the head. But don’t use them to pull on your head (at least not while doing a situp). Then the next progression is to perform the exercise with your arms straight out over your head. Now you realise how little you have been training your abs and what an imbalance there must be between your hip flexors and your lower abs. By the sounds of it you need to do the very basic strength and coordination exercises for your lower abs. Also stay away from exercises like hanging leg raises as these will preominantly work your hip flexors too and exabberate the problem. Good luck.
Patman,
Perform the version with a partner holding your legs.
Thanks Chad.
And thank you Bourbonboy for all the great advice. I also have a very tight lower back, which is probably inhibiting my lower abs - so I’ll have to start stretching the low back and hip flexors regularly. Any good exercises that will isolate the lower abs and take out the upper abs and hip flexors?
If you have back pain, you have either an injury or a big potential for injury. It is useful then to know which exercises are most dangerous for the spine, and those include situps (straight OR bent-knee, feet anchored or not), Janda situps, machine crunches, machine obliques (torso held while swiveling legs), leg raises, and Roman chair extensions. I realize this leaves few “safe” exercises for abs. Start with the plank, oblique plank, and maybe some crunches with careful form.
I recently read research claiming that the Janda situp recruits hip flexors as much as any other situp, and puts similarly high compressive load on the spine.
Keep in mind that most programs published at T-mag have the goal of somehow maximizing performance or hypertrophy. The kinds of movements that you should be doing to rehab an injured back are completely different than ones to maximize performance. An ab exercise that may be great for strengthening someone with a healthy back could destroy a stressed or injured spine.
The psoas stretch mentioned in a post above is a classic. I have trouble with it, though. When I try to stretch the psoas, my lumbar spine arches extremely, causing pain. Another stretch is to lie on your back on the edge of a bench or bed or something, and find a way to support one of your legs up in the air while letting the other hang off. Contract your abs to maintain a neutral spine. Also try to contract your glutes. With my back injury, I have found that I need to stick mostly to stretches done in a supported position, like this psoas stretch I described.
It is really helpful to study some anatomy charts showing the psoas, so that you can imagine it relaxing while in these stretch positions.
Just a little update…
The weighted hanging pikes have started to hurt my back now too, so I’ve stopped doing them as well.
Last night we tried decline sit-ups, but with the feet up on the bench. I had my training partner hold my legs, with her forearms holding down my feet, and her fingers around my legs just above the ankle. I kept the knees bent and hips flexed as much as possible. I couldn’t believe how weak I was without being able to use the hip flexors (as much)! My partner could do more than me (boy was she happy about that)! I really felt it in the lower abs.
I knew I had an imbalance, but now I see just how bad it is. I’ve also been stretching the hip flexors, so hopefully this will be corrected soon.
Thanks everyone for all the tips.
Try no-momentum situps for a “lower-back safe” ab exercise.