How To Do Sit Ups
Sit ups and crunches represent traditional exercises used for training the core muscles and flattening the abdomen. The number of injuries or the inefficiency of the exercises nevertheless indicate that many people don’t know how to do sit ups correctly. Here are a few tips about how to do sit ups at home or at the gym without any risk and with great effects.
First of all, you need to lie on the floor or on a flat, hard surface and make sure there is no distraction nearby. If the position is comfortable you can keep the feet flat on the floor and bend the knees. The distance between the feet should be the same as that between the knees or between the hips. When you lie down, the muscles relax, you eliminate the tension and there is possible soreness in the tissues. Now, let’s continue with how to do the sit ups as such.
The position of the hands is very important too. If you are a beginner, it is advisable to put the hands behind the head, cushioning it with the fingers laced together. You can thus protect the neck, because the neck muscle should have no implication in the moves. Don’t pull your neck when you lift. Learning how to do sit ups with the hands by the sides of the body or straight up in the air is a bit more difficult, and not at all a good choice for the early training stages. You may try this when you are more advanced in the training routine.
The stomach muscles should be pulled toward the spine in support of a lifting move. You should lift just the shoulder blades off the ground, for no more than eight inches in the direction of your knees. The rise is slow and so should be the descent as well. The rising and lowering movement is the basis for the sit ups, and the speed of the performance influences the results. When done correctly, the benefits of such exercises become more than obvious. Now that you know how to do sit ups, let’s see how you can improve them.
Increasing the difficulty level is crucial for efficiency. Use more reps to stimulate the muscle growth. You can alternate crunches and sit ups or make a combination of twisting moves and sit ups. From beginner to advanced levels, the possibilities are endless.
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