Crunches and sit-ups are bad. Full friggin stop. Saying 'It hasn't done me any harm,' is the same as the bloke jumping off the high-rise, going, 'So far so good, so far so good!' as he passes each floor. Supermans are also bad. So are leg raises (twice the compression on your lower back than supermans). These quotes are from here but just about anywhere will do. Eg, here here They all come down to Stuart McGill. (His pdf for four simple exercises for lower back pain prevention and rehab is here. I used them for rehab from an oft-recurring herniated disc, and I use them for warm-downs for every session I do with weights or fu... no recurrence since I started). Usually I go for exrc for a lot of lifting advice, but I disagree with their assessment of crunches/sit-ups. So, what to do? Planks (various kinds) Bent-knee curl ups (look up while doing them and raise enough to just leave the bottom of your shoulder blades on the floor) Swiss ball crunches (these allow you to keep the all important arch in your lower back) Abdominal bracing (check out Cosgrove or Zatsiorsky as to how - this is useful for all lifting, not just ab work) Believe me. Well, more importantly, believe Stuart McGill. Or, the other way to find out if I'm right is when you're in your 30s, 40s and your lower back goes, try doing supermans, crunches, bent-leg crunches, leg raises, sit-ups then... then you'll really know what part of the body is being worked in these exercises! :cry: Now I'm going to repeat post this in every crunch/sit-up thread on MAP until someone makes it sticky. :bang: :hat:
I was reading this article on sit ups, crunches etc. Apparantly the man who has the world record for doing sit ups has no abdominal definition because he simply trains the movement and is no longer benefitting the muscle. OF course with weighted sit ups you can increase the weight to an extent. Once you reach the level where you can do lots with a 20kg plate remember to start using movement to train the muscles or you achieve nothing (unless you just want to be able to do hundreds of sit ups in which case keep going).
