If someone in a film or TV show wants\u00a0a six-pack, chances are they\u2019ll drop to the floor and start doing sit-ups. According to Dr Lee Brown, senior lecturer in strength and conditioning at the University of East\u00a0London, that\u2019s more Hollywood than science.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s embedded in the archaic practices of boxing coaches and therefore everyone seems to follow it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut they\u2019re far from the best exercise for training your core.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sit-up involves lying on your back\u00a0with your knees bent, then lifting\u00a0your torso towards your thighs and lowering it again. While the abdominal muscles certainly are involved, Brown says much of the movement is driven by the hip flexors, particularly a deep muscle called the psoas major, meaning the exercise doesn\u2019t isolate the abs as effectively as\u00a0many people think.<\/p>\n
double quotation markIf you\u2019re doing too many sit-ups, it can cause problems with the lower back<\/p>\n
It can also lead to injury. \u201cIf you\u2019re doing too many sit-ups, it can cause problems with the lower back,\u201d Brown says. \u201cOverworking the hip flexors can make them hypertonic [stiff and tight]. Your torso leans forward because you\u00a0have overly toned and tight hip flexors, creating an imbalance and a\u00a0dumping ground for sheering forces in\u00a0your lower back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown recommends moves such as planks, side planks, farmer\u2019s carries (walking while holding a heavy weight in each hand), suitcase carries (walking with a weight in one hand to\u00a0challenge stability) and bird dogs (lifting the opposite arm and leg from all fours). Pilates and yoga can also help build core strength.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked with a sprinter who\u2019d had\u00a0a back injury and had been doing\u00a0sit-ups for ever,\u201d Brown says. \u201cI\u00a0asked him how long he could hold a\u00a0plank for. He said less than 30 seconds. Six weeks later, he could hold\u00a0one for seven minutes and his\u00a0back pain had gone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If someone in a film or TV show wants\u00a0a six-pack, chances are they\u2019ll drop to the floor and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[337,97],"class_list":["post-786955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}