What’s the proper way to do sit-ups?

Posted May 21, 2007 at 06:45 PM by Sahara Jackson

Section: Her Fitness, Athletics

Sit-ups can strengthen your belly muscles, but doing them incorrectly can hurt your back.

Sit-ups should be done while you lie on your back with your knees bent enough for the soles of your feet to touch the floor. Place both hands on your chest and slowly raise your head off the ground. Raise your shoulders about one foot and then lower them to the ground. Do this slowly ten times, rest a few seconds and then do two more sets of ten.

After a week or two this exercise will feel easy, so add a light weight held on your chest. As you become stronger, you can use heavier weights [and/or include more complex variations of the exercise].

There’s no need to do more than 30 sit-ups in one workout. To strengthen your belly muscles, you increase the resistance, not the number of repetitions. Keep your knees bent to protect your back. If you do a sit-up with your legs straight, you place a great force on the iliopsoas muscles that increase the arch in your back, which can damage the ligaments and joints. If your belly muscles are weak, you are likely to arch your back excessively when you sit up and increase the chances of injury. If you are doing sit-ups to flatten your stomach, you need to raise your head only about one foot because going higher than that uses the quadricep muscles in the front of your upper legs, not your belly muscles.

This post is written by Dr. Gabe Mirkin, M.D. and used with permission.  Dr. Mirkin is board certified in Sports Medicine and has practiced for over 40 years. He has completed more than 40 marathons and was a talk show host of a nationally-syndicated radio program for about 25 years. For more articles by Dr. Mirkin, please check out: www.DrMirkin.com

Please also be advised that Dr. Mirkin’s opinions and the references cited are for information only, and are not intended to diagnose or prescribe. For your specific diagnosis and treatment, consult your doctor or health care provider.

Photo: ©istockphoto.com/Jeff Strauss