Are situps good or bad now?

robocode

I can't keep up with the latest view on situps. They were great, then bad, then great, then bad. Do you consider them a safe, worthwhile exercise?

discus

Not sure what the studies are, but I use them as the mainstay for my abdominal strength. Simplest way to get a good contraction on the abs.

papu

I would prefer Crunches , Keep your lower back flat on the ground the whole time and concentrate on crunching with your abs only.

Sit ups are silly and hurt my back.

thegreatiam

sit ups put stress on your lower back, neck and shoulders. always have always will, that has never changed. Ive never seen the opinion on them change since I was a kid. Not one person in my life has ever said sit ups are good now.

I dont consider them safe or worthwhile

crunches are a slightly better variation.

But reward to effort there are a million better exercise which produce better results than both situps and crunches, so why do either?

conzy

I find hip thrusts good if your looking for a ground based exercise.

But weighted captains chair / kneeling cable crunches are amazing for core strength I find

robocode

thegreatiam wrote: »

sit ups put stress on your lower back, neck and shoulders. always have always will, that has never changed. Ive never seen the opinion on them change since I was a kid. Not one person in my life has ever said sit ups are good now.

I dont consider them safe or worthwhile

crunches are a slightly better variation.

But reward to effort there are a million better exercise which produce better results than both situps and crunches, so why do either?

But don't Crossfitters do them frequently? Also, Dominic Munnelly includes them in a few of his home workouts. So I think quite a few people have said they are good

discus

Doesn't any exercise that involves contracting your abs not involve rounding your lower back?!

papu

discus wrote: »

Doesn't any exercise that involves contracting your abs not involve rounding your lower back?!

Not necessarily. Something like this sure as heck works your abs but your back is flat to the floor. Bicycle Crunch
In all of those exercises the back is flat and protected and the abs are engaged.

discus

Surely a flat back isn't great either?

thegreatiam

robocode wrote: »

But don't Crossfitters do them frequently? Also, Dominic Munnelly includes them in a few of his home workouts. So I think quite a few people have said they are good

so what are you asking? Your question is do we/I think its a worthwhile exercise. The answer is no.

Personally I think the stresses it creates out weigh the benefit it gives. Why do one exercise that cause these problems and doesn't exercise the whole abdominal area when there are better options

sure, as part of a met con, or other program they may have their place, but in general they are a poor exercise often done poorly, not worth the bother.

An ab roller, dragon flags, planks, cable pulls, pallof press or other ab stability exercises would be better.

If you really want that curl tho feel free to hammer them out

robocode

I never heard of dragon flags, they look like they would give a great workout!

thegreatiam

ala bruce lee/ rocky

they are a good workout on their own let aloe just for abs.

Start with ab roll outs and leg raises, then begin some form of dragon flag progression.

This is pretty good stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CavZeuCS56g

robocode

Looks good, thanks! I find ab roll outs great. Rather than buy a roller (even though they're cheap) I just put a dumbbell handle through an old york weight I had lying around. Works great

thegreatiam

robocode wrote: »

Looks good, thanks! I find ab roll outs great. Rather than buy a roller (even though they're cheap) I just put a dumbbell handle through an old york weight I had lying around. Works great

as long as it doesnt wobble too much thats fine.

robocode

Hmmm, it does wobble a bit, though not much. Maybe I should just buy a decent roller from D8 fitness store

thegreatiam

its probably fine, but a roller is less than a tenner. had em in lidl/aldi the other day, argos and amazon. and D8 if youre close of course.

Or just put the 2 plates on your dumbbell and make it like an axel not a wheel barrow.