Many people doing abdominal muscles often compare the safety risk of one over the other, thinking if russian twists are bad for your back, why aren’t hanging windshield wipers? Fortunately, it’s possible to build your abdominal muscles while avoiding potential back injuries in the future. For that reason, many often compare one form of exercise to another in order to determine safety and efficacy.
What are Russian twists?
Russian twists are a common sitting exercise. While sitting, this is where you lift your feet off the floor and pass a weight from one side of your body to the other. This is not an easy exercise, but it’s not something that’s too difficult to do. You’re moving your body in a twisting motion, which is why it’s called a twist.
What are hanging windshield wipers?
This is a very difficult exercise that you can’t do at home. It requires you to hang vertically from a bar,a nd swing your legs from left to right. Furthermore, this exercise requires you to orient your legs in a way that they are parallel to the floor. Imagine making your legs look like a windshield wiper on an automobile. This is also an advanced exercise that may not be a great idea for beginners due to its high risks of injury. Part of the reason why this exercise carries a lower risk of an injury is because people doing this exercise may have more experience!
Risk of a Back Injury From Russian Twists
Many online writers suggest that Russian twist exercises are dangerous due to a risk of compression. One athletic therapy journal article from 2008 indicates that the Russian Twist exercise is a great advanced core exercise. Another study mentions an older golfer who used russian twists as part of an exercise routine as a way to help improve core strength.
It’s clear that russian twists are a form of exercise which are well-documented to produce great results. However, this doesn’t mean that this form of exercise does not come without the chance of an injury. A trainer was quoted in Men’s Health suggesting that the exercise places a lot of pressure on the spine. It’s certainly true that a rotational position with the exercise is very likely to cause an injury. In most cases, the recommendation is to avoid the exercise due to the spinal pressure. This is especially important to consider if you’re new to exercise.
Alternatives
Ultimately, both Russian twists and hanging windshield wipers are core exercises. They’re designed to target the muscles in your abdomen. Fortunately, you can still work these muscles with a much lower risk of an injury. You might consider planking! This might be a slightly uncomfortable exercise at first, but you’re able to build the same core muscles that you would build with a Russian twist!
Conclusion
There have been studies which have shown the benefits of Russian twist exercises. But, there’s also plenty of evidence which suggests that the exercises are dangerous. Therefore, you may want to reconsider these, especially since there are other great options that are able to work the same muscle groups.
Recent Comments