It's that time of year again. People spend lots of time outside, clothes get considerably smaller, local water bodies fill up with people in hopes of cooling down for a bit. Summer always brings motivation to get out there and get a little tone in your muscles. Maybe a few squats, pushups, sit-ups - stop right there! You shouldn't be doing sit-ups!
Many people have never questioned the safety of their exercises, and that's why I'm here to tell you that sit-ups can be a lot more harm than help.
Don't believe me? Allow me to explain why.
It takes many more sit-ups than other exercises to build muscle. And, that muscle isn't even built in the core - where you're trying to reach. You're building muscle in your hip flexors. If these get disproportionately strong compared to your core and back muscles, they'll pull at your lower spine, causing pain in your lower back.
When you do sit-ups, you flex your spine over and over again. It puts an incredible amount of stress on your lower back by creating sheer force, which wears down the walls of your spinal discs. The walls eventually get so worn down that the discs' nuclei bulge out and hit nerves - this is called "herniating". It isn't a pleasant feeling, in fact, it's quite painful. The sit-up motion also causes compressed vertebrae.
This is what your spinal discs will look like if they herniate:
So, we're risking herniated discs, compressed vertebrae and nerve damage for muscle that isn't even centered in our abs. Sound like a fair trade? I don't think so.
To get that core strengthened up, I would suggest doing planks. To do this, go into a pushup position, then lower to your elbows and hold. These don't hurt your spine, they don't train a useless motion, and they build muscle much faster.
Happy training!
-Pygmygoat
Author's Note: Source: http://www.peaksportsandspinept.com/articles/whysitupsareabadidea.cfm
