Sit-up (exercise)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The sit-up is a strength training exercise. To perform it, a person lies down on the floor with their knees bent at a 90 degree angle, they then sit up without moving their knees. The hands are placed beside the head or neck, across the chest, or are straightened out parallel to the body. It is intended to work the abdominal muscles, but it also utilises the hip flexors and lower back. This imprecise targeting of the abdominal muscles has caused sit-ups to be replaced by crunches as the most common abdominal exercise.
Many people do many sit ups each day in an attempt to gain a 'six pack', but abdominal exercises may need to be combined with some form of cardiovascular exercise such as running to burn lower body fat to allow the abdominal muscles to be seen.
The sit-up places considerable stress on the lower back vertebrae, so individuals who experience lower back pain should perform the crunch instead.
The use of sit ups as an exercise to increase trunk strength should be viewed as the preferred exercise above exercises like a crunch. The reason is that a full sit-up is a functional activity that builds function into movement and has many more positive benefits to the participant other than just improving the look of the six pack.[citation needed] The crunch movement can still be included in the complete sit up and therefore giving the participant maximum benefits.
The sit up should also be carried out to suit the individual's level of ability, and therefore cannot be simply described as hands behind the head and knees bent at 90 degrees.
The individual should conclude to what weight should be lifted (i.e. anything above the waist) and how much leverage they have to pull against (i.e. everything below the waist).
As abdominal strength increases, the amount to be lifted can be gradually increased by varying these two variables. This is done by moving the position of the arms and legs in relation to the pivot point. To further increase resistance beyond the position of your arms and legs, a medicine ball may be used. Similar to creating resistance by positioning one's hands, holding the medicine ball further above one's head will increase the resistance.
Some sit-ups are performed in a sideways manner. The purpose of these is to strengthen the Abdominal external oblique muscle, as opposed to the frontal abdominal muscles. To perform these, the person lies on one side, legs together, with their arms in front of their body, hands clasped. Contracting the oblique muscles on the upward-facing side of one's body will pull one's body into a bow shape, similar to the effect of an abdominal crunch.
