My lower back goes through a lot of intensity when I do sit ups on my incline situp board. I don’t know if it is good or if it is a feeling that shouldn’t be there. I mean, situps aren’t supposed to work your lower back right?
I still don’t have all the knowladge of all the muscles in torso and abdomen region so I’m not sure if it is functional or what.
I also have lordosis excess spinal curvature which i am actually trying to remedy with the intense ab work but i don’t know if I’m doing more harm than good with the incline situps.
I only get the feeling when I go ALL the way down before goin back up.
Anybody else have this lower back feeling when training abs sometimes?
If it hurts, don’t do it. Maybe try just crunches for now and work your way up once you can do higher reps of crunches. Full sit-ups will work part of your hipflexor which I believe (the soas) goes from your hip in from to the lower back area. Stretch properly and make sure the area is flexible.
Thanx, that gives me a bit more idea on what the strain is, now I can try some adjustment.
Herb’s basically got it right. In addition, do not do sit-ups on the incline board, or otherwise lock your feet under any piece of equipment. Anchoring the feet allows the illiopsoas group to work more effectively, and these muscles tend to dominate the movement, adding additional stress to the lower back. Try doing crunches with your feet unanchored, or with the lower leg up on a bench so that both the trunck and knee angles are at 90 degrees. This will shorten the illiopsoas group so that they can not add to the exercise as effectively.
Herb. What sort of answers is
“if it hurts, don’t do it” surely you could of taken those 6 simple words and made it a 2000 word report.
But guys/girls he’s right. If it hurts stop work around it and find out why it hurts.
Damn I love simple answers. I don’t have to think and my head doesn’t hurt. Especially first thing Saturday morning after getting home from drinking too much.
I thought it was effective to bring other muscles into play rather than just trying to hit the abs. After all, there are many muscles that contribute to stable torso, and prevention of pelvis tilt and rotation when running/sprinting.
My idea was to do the incline situps, but also to combine them with
other exercises such as curl ups/ wrist ups/ laying single leg raises
with lower back on hands with hip OFF the floor etc etc…
Given that this is the general way I train mid-section is it still a bad idea to include incline sit ups ? (My feet are anchored in this exercise aswell.)
Obvioulsy, as an athlete you very rarely want to isolate abdominal work on it’s own. Rather, it would be more approipriate to train the hip flexors/abdominals together.
This is where the “if it hurts, don’t do it” recommendation comes into play.
From an anatomical point of view, incline situps will probably work the hip flexors more than the abs anyway, and by having your feet locked into stirrups, you will be also working your quads. A more gender specific ab program (for sprinting) could utilise more isometric exercises, perhaps swiss ball stuff, as core stab would be alot more beneficial to the sprinter than “beach muxcle” exercises.