When I do high rep sit ups my feet start coming of the ground.
Is this becuase of weak abs or maybe something else?
I thought of doing them with ankle weights on or med ball between feet but then the hip flexors would end up doing most of the work,
and is that bad?
Anybody here put there feet under anything on any ab reps?
As a side note, ab training gets a bit boring for me but I consider it the 2nd most important training element.
What r the forums favourite ab exercises?
I like laying on my back doing the “bug” thing with legs cycling.
I find sit ups and curl ups very boring.
What are you training for?
Most athletes would benefit from heavy abdominal work (i.e., weighted situps, leg raises, rotational work, DB side bends, standing cable crunches, etc.)
Whenever the feet are fixed, when performing trunk flexion, the hip flexors play a large role in executing the lift.
The reason that your feet come up off of the floor is to compensate for the onset of concentric muscle failure of your active musculature (hip flexors/rectus abdominus).
James Smith
Fantastic, It confirms to me my hunch that I got better results when doing low reps more intensely, but why do the fastest sprinters seem to do high rep sets?
Linford christie would regularly perform 300 + speed crunches or curl ups
(probably divided into sets) but that’s still high reps.
The feet also come off the floor when they are not counter balancing the upper body enough ie. upper body weight too much for leg weight. Stick your feet under something.
The topic of high rep situps for sprinters has been covered extensively. Main reason is to help reserve CNS excitement for other training sessions…the CNS is drained enough without the help of ab exercises. Also, high reps of the abs, obliques etc. seems to still provide sufficient strength in the area due to the high amount of slow twitch here. Search the archives.
I do have ectomorphic legs and Meso upperbody which explains the counterbalancing u mentioned.
However, when I have put ankle weights on my legs or stuck them under
something my hip flexors get more work than my abs. This could lead to
more lordosis if my hip flexors get stronger than my abs.
the legs may not counter balance the upper body even if in muscle proportion. It also depends on length of the legs and trunk, and even with perfect proportions why would it matter if counter balance is not gained.
Also, strongly developed hip flexors need not cause too much lordosis when performing situps (you do just mean during situps I take it). If you ensure the abs contract first ie. roll the back gradually off the floor before the hips lift and reverse the movement on the way down. I am sure the abs will develop accordingly anyway, even if at the moment the hip flexors feel more stressed.
I like laying on my back doing the “bug” thing with legs cycling.