The sit-up is one of the most popular exercises performed both at home and in gyms. Every man wants a ripped torso and every women a flat toned stomach, and it seems so easy, you just sit on the floor, put your hands behind your head and crunch. Well, not exactly, and that is why many people find that they have been doing sit ups for a while and haven’t seen the results.
So here are a few tips that will help you make the most of your sit-ups.
Tip 1 It’s time to forget the old ways.
You may have been told by your old PE teacher to lie on the floor, put your hands behind you head and then pull your head forward and sit up until your face touches your knees. The truth is the only thing that you will achieve by doing a sit up this way is a bad back and a strained neck. There is no need to move through such a large range of motion. In fact after a point you abs are basically disengaged and its your back and hips that are doing most of the work and taking the strain. A better way is to cross your arms in front of your chest or keep your hands by your side and only raise your shoulders 15-16cm of the floor.
Tip 2 Tighten up
When you do your sit up concentrate on the muscles being worked, so as you crunch suck in your abdominals and feel them tighten.
Tip 3 Vary your workout
Your abdominals are made up of a complex arrangement of muscles and doing just one kind of sit up will not develop the whole. So try different abdominal exercises such as leg raises, side bends to work the obliques, bicycle sit-ups and the many more that have been devised to blast your abs.
Tip 4 Do not try to work every muscle at once.
Concentrate on you lower abdominals one day, then target your obliques on another and then your upper abdominals the next time you workout.. You are then focusing more on individual muscles, resulting in that area getting a more intense workout. You will also give those areas time to recover, maximizing growth in each area.
Tip 5 Change your routines.
After a while your body gets used to the exercises you're performing, so you need to change your sit up routine every 6-8 weeks. By challenging your body this way you will not only see better results but it reduces the boredom that can set in over time. It is well worth taking time to design a sit up workout routine in advance. You could choose 2-3 ab exercises for the first 2 months, then already have planned the next routines for the following 2 months, and so on. This way you don’t have to keep coming up with creative ways to workout.
Conclusion
A lot of people work their abs for appearance but never forget that they are part of your core muscle group, helping support your body and protect your back. You need to spend time working these muscles because everything comes from the core.