UKC

Hi all,
I read somewhere that when doing sit ups you should support your bum and lower back with a towel or mat to prevent back pain.

I've always done sit ups on a hard floor with no mat and with no noticed ill affects. I tried the above with a folded towel last night and I got quite a pain in my lower back.

Is the whole towel thing a load of codswallop then?

In reply to Double Knee Bar: Sit-ups are bad for the lower back full stop. There are plenty of other core exersices that do not bend the spine and are less prone to injury and far more effective.

I think that you have answered your own question with regards to the towel though. It hurt, don't do it.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:
Maybe you should do your sit ups from a double knee bar.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

I use a mat or towel to ease comfort on a had floor but not to support the back.

You should keep your tummy dished and not create an arch in your back. This is true of other exercises like leg raises etc. If you cannot get your back on the floor you need to amend the exercise to your level of strength/flexibility to protect your back.

To be honest though, i don't really like situps for this reason and prefer crunches or other variations on situps.

Ones where you never completely go flat back on to the ground, and maintain a dish shape instead. Its a harder workout as you are maintaining core stability and balance throughout and you can vary the difficulty of it to protect your back.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

if you can, get yerself on a glute-ham-developer (GHD).

bad if you get it wrong, but excellent if you get it right (think of the padded bit not as a seat, but as a glute/thigh rest). aside from the basics and russian death training, things like crunches etc (as pointed out above) gather a whole new level.

In reply to Martin1978:

I had always understood that you should try NOT to bend your spine when doing sit ups.

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

Heavy Front Squats is, IMHO, a great abdominal exercise.

In reply to ice.solo: Thanks for the advice guys. not seen the GHDs before. What's Russian Death Training? a quick google didn't tell me much.

My current core routine:
3 sets of 15 pressups
20 situps
2 min plank
90sec side plank each side
45 sec l hang
10 leg raises to pullup bar
2 min plank

So a bit of variation in there but not very scientific.

In reply to Ava Adore: You shouldn't but 99% of folk do.

Avoid situps

Do Planks, side planks, side planks lifting leg, side planking lifting hand and leg.

That will work your core better.

In reply to Double Knee Bar: Do your Situps/crunches on a gym ball. You get a supported back and you can get a wider range of motion. You can use weights like this also. Lots of better ab exercises, v -sits for example.

In reply to Double Knee Bar: Sit ups are bad. If you want core strength heavy back squat and dead lift are the way to go.

In reply to Onge:

Sounds awful - hope you're better soon.

Sit-ups are crap plain and simple. I'm a musculoskeletal therapist and advise people to stead clear on any flexion ( spine bending) base excercises when possible.
Lots of studies these days are available showing the failure rates of spinal structures and how this is type of excercise will contribute to higher compression loads on the spine and discs.

In simple , train the torso to resit movement, not create it. That's what the limbs are for!

In reply to Double Knee Bar:

As it turns out, the exercises synonymous with strong, attractive abs may not be the best way to train your core—and may be doing damage to your back.

“We stopped teaching people to do crunches a long, long time ago,” says Dr. Richard Guyer, president of the Texas Back Institute. That’s because the “full flex” movement—the actual “crunch” part of crunches – puts an unhealthy strain on your back at its weakest point. The section with the most nerves (and most potential for nerve damage) is in the back of the spine, which is the very part that bends and strains during a sit-up.

“There are only so many bends or a ‘fatigue life’,” in your spinal disks,” says Stuart M. McGill

from http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/blogs/the-human-condition/2009/06/03/...

In reply to Frosty3006:

I always thought the point of sit ups was to keep your spine straight but using your core muscles properly

In a traditional sit-up it is impossible to keep your back straight as your pelvis is anchored to the floor, so there has to be quite a degree of spinal flexion. Thats with reference to a full 'curl' sit-up.

There are modified crunches and versions which on appearance look very tame, such as the Stuart MgGill crunch, but its very different.