Author Topic: Situps.  (Read 3243 times)

Offline Worrier

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I have noticed something about these. There is all this info saying don't do them they do your back in etc.And the hip flexors do the work

Wel I have been doing them for a year now to failiure on an incline board also. And my abs look good.I don't do any other ab exercise and I can feel my abs burning when I finsh them. I also do them as fast as possible e.g I can now do 80 in 2 mins and believe me that is much more strenuous than those crunches etc.

I think alot of this is just to give the fitness 'experts' something to say. Obviously if you are an old duffer or a woman maybe go easy but I do them and most of the guys at the gym do them. The potential back wrecker is the squats if anything.I have seen so many guys injure themselves doing that.

Offline soccerplaya

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youve seen guys injure themselves while doing squats?

crunches work for me, although you hafto do more of them, they work.... I usually do 60 uppers, 60 lowers, 30 each of side abdominals. and I can do em pretty fast too.

Offline Worrier

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youve seen guys injure themselves while doing squats?

crunches work for me, although you hafto do more of them, they work.... I usually do 60 uppers, 60 lowers, 30 each of side abdominals. and I can do em pretty fast too.


Yep, its kind of a standing joke. A bloke comes in doesn't warmup , puts heavy weights on the bar ,doesn't use a spotter and then you hear a scream and 'my fu**ing back' .

Happens all the time.The best one was when some nutter came down to the gym on boxing day on his own he had a key as he's a trustee and he started  doing squats. Seriously hurt himself , ambulance job. Number one back injurer in mygym.


Offline soccerplaya

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Do you think the injuries come from not keeping your back straight?

Offline Bakajin

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squats are only a high risk injury when done with bad form.  The reason why so many people injure themselves is because the average gym user does not actually know that much about safe or effective weight training.  In my own experience high rep (60+) exercises generally result in more injuries than low rep ones  (10 or less) simply due to the fatigue factor (people's often goes bad as they tire) and long term stress on the body.

as for developing your abs via situps, this is just a guess but has your body fat % dropped as well over the past year?  in most cases showing a 6 pack is more a result of a low body fat that developing ab muscles.  I train with a quite a few pro fighters who mostly have highly defined 6 packs despite never doing situps except for warm up routines.  This is mainly because of them maintaining a low bodyfat % for fighting in lower weight classes.

abs being primarily a stabiliser muscle are developed more when they are used to stablise during heavy lifting movements than they do from just high rep situp routines.  a lot of non-heavyweight olympic and power lifters actually have huge ab muscles (not just defined ones) as a result of their main lifting routines which do not really focus on abs much.  thats not to say you can't get strong abs from situps, but I feel there are much easier ways to achieve a strong stomach than to dedicate a specialised workout to it.

Offline soccerplaya

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Yeah I do ab work more for the core strength than the good looks..... If I lost more bodyfat and got real thin then they would look really good.

Offline moobius

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squats are only a high risk injury when done with bad form.  The reason why so many people injure themselves is because the average gym user does not actually know that much about safe or effective weight training.  In my own experience high rep (60+) exercises generally result in more injuries than low rep ones  (10 or less) simply due to the fatigue factor (people's often goes bad as they tire) and long term stress on the body.

as for developing your abs via situps, this is just a guess but has your body fat % dropped as well over the past year?  in most cases showing a 6 pack is more a result of a low body fat that developing ab muscles.  I train with a quite a few pro fighters who mostly have highly defined 6 packs despite never doing situps except for warm up routines.  This is mainly because of them maintaining a low bodyfat % for fighting in lower weight classes.

abs being primarily a stabiliser muscle are developed more when they are used to stablise during heavy lifting movements than they do from just high rep situp routines.  a lot of non-heavyweight olympic and power lifters actually have huge ab muscles (not just defined ones) as a result of their main lifting routines which do not really focus on abs much.  thats not to say you can't get strong abs from situps, but I feel there are much easier ways to achieve a strong stomach than to dedicate a specialised workout to it.


good info! this post is spot on

 

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