Cooper Neill/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
- Crunches and sit-ups are being shunned by fitness experts in the US military and elite gyms.
- At least four trainers have told Business Insider that there are far better ways to strengthen your core muscles and get fit in a hurry than sit-ups and crunches.
- But if you love a good crunch, there is a right way to do it: Don’t move too fast, and keep your low back on the floor the entire time, pulling your rib cage towards your pelvis with your core muscles.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
If you like to sit down, stand, or bend down and pick things up from time to time, then you are a fan of your abs, whether they’re rock-hard or not.
Abdominal muscles connect our rib cage to our pelvis, keeping our spine healthy and our mid-section strong enough to carry us through the day. Strengthening your core can help improve your posture and better prepare you to tackle all kinds of everyday tasks, and (of course) it can also help you develop a trimmer, more firm waistline and a chiseled frame.
Unfortunately, the basic crunches and sit-ups we’ve been taught are not actually the most efficient or healthy ways to build a strong core. Worse, they may cause serious damage to your back and neck if you do them wrong.
At least four different trainers and kinesiologists from celebrity gyms, universities, and fitness centers across the US have told Business Insider that sit-ups and crunches are simply not their preferred moves. And the nonprofit American Council on Exercise (ACE) says that when it comes to crunches, a lot of people "perform this movement too rapidly" and cheat their way in and out of the move by using their hip flexors to help them into the crunch.
"This technique tilts the pelvis anteriorly, increasing the stress on the low back, and should be avoided," the ACE says on its website.
Here are a handful of reasons why trainers, exercise scientists, and the US military all dislike traditional crunches and sit-ups, along with their recommendations for better core moves.
“Six-pack” abs have developed something of an unattainable appeal, but the truth is that everyone has abs. These muscles are grouped into three separate areas of our mid section.
Reuters/Danny Moloshok
There are the surface "six-pack" muscles (rectus abdominis), the deep core stabilizers below them (transverse abominis), and the side muscles (obliques).
The problem is that many core exercises, when done wrong, don’t target these areas of the body very well. That’s partly why both the Army and the Navy are phasing out their sit-up tests by the end of 2020.
David Goldman/AP
Similarly, the Department of Veterans Affairs warns that straight-leg sit-ups "may cause undue strain on the lower back."
Instead of the ab test, US soldiers will be evaluated on their ability to do movements that they might actually use in combat, like deadlifts and drag-and-carry moves.
TSgt Brian Kimball/DoD
The US army now recommends four core training moves that "train all these muscles in a manner that mimics their function." These include bent leg raises in which soldiers "contract the abdominals as if you are preparing for a blow to the stomach," as well as bridges, side bridges, and leg lifts.
The Navy is replacing its sit-up test with a plank, as Task & Purpose reported.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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Source: Business Insider – hbrueck@businessinsider.com (Hilary Brueck)