Let’s face it: Sit-ups are harmful instead of helpful. One of the most common misconceptions about home exercise that people hold is that Sit-Ups help them gain abdominal strength.
However, this is not entirely true. Many bodies of research have concluded that sit-ups are not beneficial for your core strength and overall health.
Sit-Ups Do Provide Core Strength
Sit-ups are able to strengthen your body’s core. However, they do not provide any additional benefits to any other muscle groups. As you do more of these, what is likely to happen is that you’ll develop a lot of unbalanced muscle mass.
Harmful For Your Back
Aside from being unbalanced, sit-ups can also be harmful for your back. You’re placing a lot of repetitive motion on your spinal cord as you perform these. You’re putting a lot of pressure on your back as you continually press your spinal cord up against a hard, flat surface. Over time, your back will possibly begin to hurt as you
Try Planking or Stretching
Instead of the repetitive motion which comes with performing a lot of sit-ups, consider planking exercises instead. These are designed to use more of your body’s muscle groups, providing a more widely distributed core strength. Aside from that, you’re also not putting a lot of repetitive strain on your back. This means, that in the long run, your body will thank you with less aches and pains.
Even The Military Is Switching
As part of their physical fitness standards, the US Marine Corps is well-known for using sit-ups to assess their personnel. Acknowledging the risk of injury, they have made the decision to replace these sit-ups with planks. The reason is that they see the increased amount of hip flexor muscle strain which is required for the sit-ups to be performed successfully.
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