Sit Ups

How To Do Sit Ups To Build Strong Ab Muscles

You remember sit ups from gym class, right?  What a great exercise to build strong ab muscles.  When they are done right, they are one of the best abdominal exercises you can do.

It seems like ab crunches are more popular at the gym.  But if you're alert, you may notice the really fit looking people doing more traditional situps.  If you haven't done them in a while, review the proper technique and try a few.

I'll give you a heads up.  It takes a fair amount of abdominal strength to do good form sit ups without anchoring your feet.  If you want to anchor your feet and it helps you keep the proper form, go ahead an anchor them.  Anchoring your feet will incorporate your hip flexor muscles and take some of the work away from your abs. 

That doesn’t mean it’s always bad to anchor your feet.  But it is nice to know which muscles you are working.

Technique

• Lay on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground.
• Place your hands either behind your head with your elbows out or on opposite shoulders with your arms crossed in front of you.  Crossed in front of you makes the movement easier.  Hands behind your head makes it more difficult.
• Contract your abs like you are getting ready for a punch in the gut.
• Lift your head and then shoulder blades off the ground in a controlled manner while keeping your feet flat on the ground.
• Focus on your ab muscles.  They are the ones that should be doing the work.  Also pay attention to your arms if your hands are behind your head.  Make sure you are not straining your neck by trying to pull your head up.  Focus on your thighs and hip flexors too.  Make sure they aren’t doing all the work.
• Keep your eyes on your knees and pull up until your torso is at a 90 degree angle with the floor.  If you have your arms in front of you, your elbows should be able to touch your knees.
• Hold the top position for a count, then lean back and bring your upper body back down to the floor.
• That’s one rep.  Only do the number of reps you can do correctly. 

Keep In Mind...

• MAN it's easy to start losing form when you start getting fatigued.  When you lose form in sit ups, you end up using other muscle groups to pull yourself off the ground.  Worse, you can put a lot of unnecessary strain on your neck and lower back.

Instead, anchor your feet or try adjusting your arm position. 

• Don’t do them if you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis.  Bending your spine in the sit up position puts increased stress on your bones and can put you at risk of stress fracture.
• Don’t pull your head.  If your neck is getting sore, you’re trying to pull your head up with your arms.  This is especially tempting when your abs start getting tired.  Keep your focus on the abs.
• Don't round your back.  Your back is going to round a little bit, but keeping it straighter will exercise your abs more and avoid stressing your spine.
• If your feet are not anchored and you are having a really hard time keeping them on the ground during the movement, you will find that a lot of your effort is originating from your thighs.  In other words, your thighs and hip flexors will be trying to pull you up instead of your abs.  THAT'S HOW YOU KNOW YOU ARE WORKING MORE THAN JUST YOUR ABDOMINAL MUSCLES.  Which is a good thing.  All of those muscles work together to move you.
• If you are experiencing lower back or neck discomfort, stop doing sit ups and switch to another good ab and core exercise.  Sit ups can put a lot more strain on the spine and neck than other exercises.

Modifiers

Arm Position

Folding the arms in front of you will make the movement easier than putting your hands behind your head.

If you need to make your sit ups harder, try extending your arms above your head.

To make the exercise easier, say for your last drop set, extend your arms in front of you.

Anchor the feet

If you are having a hard time keeping your feet flat on the ground and doing sit ups correctly, go ahead and anchor your feet.  You can get a friend to hold them or anchor them under something heavy like a bench, a couch, a bed, or anything else.

Remember that anchoring your feet will naturally bring your hip flexors into play.  You want to take them out of the equation so your abs can do the work.  That’s why you’re on the floor in the first place, right?  The six pack abs?

Here’s a trick: place your feet close together and keep your knees apart.  That will prevent the hip flexors from having a direct line to pull your torso up, which will put the load on the abs where it is supposed to be.

Exercise Ball

If you have lower back pain or just want to minimize the stress on your lower back, do sit ups on an exercise ball.

• Choose an exercise ball appropriate for your size.  Don’t spend too much time analyzing this.  If you’re tall get a big one.  If you’re short, get a smaller one.
• Sit on the exercise ball with your feet on the floor.
• Roll backwards on the ball until your back is parallel with the floor and your knees are bent at a 90 degree angle.
• Position the hands like before – either behind the head or across the chest.
• Contract your abs.
• Pull yourself up until your torso is at about a 45 degree angle with the floor and then lower yourself back down.  Keep the movement under control.  No jerking around wildly.
• Keep doing that without resting until you really feel it in your abs.

Adding Weight Resistance

If you are getting to the point where normal sit ups are just too easy for you, add weight resistance.  You can either hold a plate against your chest or use something like a medicine ball. 

If you use a medicine ball, experiment with different arm positions like I mentioned above.