Lie on your back Sit-ups were once regarded as gods. With the development of the times and the popularization of sports science, many people no longer advocate sit-ups. Even the U.S. military has abolished the training unit of sit-ups in training!
Today let’s talk about: Why don’t we do sit-ups?
The reason is a bit complicated. We can discuss it from two aspects: training risk and training effect.
In terms of training risks, as sports science research has a more and more thorough understanding of core stability, we have found that the lumbar spine is a body part that requires "stability" much higher than "mobility". What does this sentence mean?
The spine is a layered structure with nerves nearby. , in all human upper body upright postures, the lumbar vertebrae bear the weight of the entire upper body, as well as any external weight held in the hands, carried on the shoulders, or carried on the back, and we also know that the body is moving During the process, if the posture is slightly unbalanced, the lumbar spine may deform. Although the lumbar spine has a certain degree of mobility, once this mobility is excessive, it may over-squeeze the intervertebral disc and even damage the nerves. Therefore, "We hope, Try to keep the lumbar spine within a safe range."
There are two necessary principles to protect the lumbar spine within a safe range during sit-ups:
No. One: Don’t do too much, and second: Don’t do it too fast. In other words, it may be safe to do three sit-ups at a speed similar to Tai Chi routines, but this is obviously not what most people do when doing sit-ups. Method: Sit-ups usually require massive training, and often become a speed test within a limited time (such as counting the number of sit-ups in one minute). During this process, the lumbar spine will continue to bend at high speed with the movement. Essentially, the intervertebral disc is repeatedly squeezed in various directions. As the muscles become more and more fatigued and the posture becomes more and more awkward, potential injuries slowly begin to emerge and will continue to accumulate. When the accumulated damage is enough, When it is severe enough, various pains will begin to appear.
But also because this is a cumulative process, Many people don't feel any difference in the "initial stage", and it is even difficult to understand that the physical injuries are accumulating. Usually months or years later, because they often experience inexplicable injuries to the waist, twisting the waist, or even unable to sleep. I found out that my waist already had an old injury when I suffered from low back pain. Many people who have been athletes have similar experiences.
These remarks will always cause some people to jump out and say: "When I was a soldier, I stood up on my back. I can jump 10,000 times every time I sit down, and my abdominal muscles are bulletproof... I'm still not living well..." Yes, there are indeed some heroes who can do it. You can go through a lot of bad exercises without getting injured. However, this may be due to luck caused by the natural shape of your spine. This does not mean that such an example can be used as evidence that sit-ups are suitable for all human beings. Moreover, this process of excessive and repeated twisting of the lumbar spine. Even if no injury is caused, the stability of the lumbar spine is reduced. People with low lumbar spine stability are also at a higher risk of injury during strenuous exercise or when carrying external weight.Risk, in other words, even if you are not injured during sit-ups, you may be injured during other movements.
When the stability of the lumbar spine is very poor, even daily activities such as holding a child, getting up from the sofa, sneezing vigorously, or putting on socks and tying shoelaces may cause sudden onset of low back pain. Therefore, from a risk perspective, sit-ups have greater risks!
You may ask, if someone is naturally immune to the risks of sit-ups and can do them no matter how many times they do, then can they enjoy sit-ups as much as they want? This depends on the training effect.
From a training perspective, each exercise must have a clear purpose and effect before it is worth doing. However, the effect of sit-ups is not very convincing.
If you say that sit-ups can help you slim down your lower abdomen, then your exercise knowledge needs to be strengthened. I will not waste time explaining why sit-ups alone are unlikely to slim down your lower abdomen. .
What needs to be explained is that some people will argue that sit-ups can train muscle endurance. This seems to make sense. Indeed, sit-ups can train the muscle endurance of repeated bending. But in fact, unless you are going to participate in the World Bending Competition, most of the time, the abdominal muscles function in an "isometric contraction" manner, that is to say, the abdominal muscles (or the entire core muscle group) , the main function is to "cooperate with the callThe movement of the diaphragm during the suction process helps "stabilize" the trunk. In other words, the core muscles are used to "create stability" and "resist movement", rather than to "reduce stability" and "produce movement" .
We have explained in other articles that humans are one of the very few vertebrates that can stand up. The spine does not have a very good bearing capacity in the vertical state. However, most of the time, humans support their lower body on On the ground, the upper body then resists the external weight. At this time, the poor lumbar spine becomes the power hub for up and down attacks. Only the protection of intra-abdominal pressure can ensure the safety of the spine. At this time, if the core muscles cannot cooperate with the breathing method. Cooperating to provide "stabilizing" functions may endanger the lumbar spine, resulting in limited strength or even risk of injury
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Therefore, the best way to train truly useful core functions is to tighten the core muscles in a neutral lumbar posture with appropriate breathing techniques, and then bear external resistance or heavy weight.
If you are a beginner who has never exercised before, you may use plank support, side plank pose, supine bridge pose, etc. to train for 10 to 60 seconds each time
But if you are a strong competitive athlete, you may have to carry 2 to 3 times your body weight externally, practice weight-bearing walking, or carry 0.5 to 1 times your body weight with one hand to do unilateral lifting, or do heavy lifting Squat systemVariations on the row and deadlift series.
In short, there is no such thing as sit-ups in the menu of strengthening the core.
The goal of muscle strength training is to stimulate the body's muscles, bones and nervous system by resisting heavy weight outside the body, so as to build a stronger body and higher human movement ability. We don't do any sit-ups due to the high, unnecessary training risks for most people and the fact that core-based function and sit-up movement patterns simply don't matter.