Sit Ups

Sit ups are an effective way to build stronger abdominal muscles. However, to avoid any injury to your spine and neck muscles proper form must be followed. Be sure that you are not compensating by using other body muscles to perform this exercise.You will take away some of the benefit of the exercise by cheating. As you are doing the sit up, focus all of your attention on the abdominal muscles. Try to feel them contracting.

Steps

Lie on your back. Bend your knees so your feet are placed flat on the ground. The knees should be at about a 90 degree angle. Weight your feet down with dumbbells, a partner, or furniture.

The best arm position is the crossed one. Cross your arms over your chest with your hands on opposite shoulders. This allows you a central raising point. However, if this is too difficult to start with you can lower your hands. As you get stronger your hands can go by your ears.

Tighten your abdominal muscles by pulling in your belly button toward your back.

Slowly lift your head and shoulder blades as one unit. Raise your torso until your bend elbows touch your thighs. Hold the position for a second. Slowly bring your upper body back toward the floor but don't rest it on the ground. Keep it slightly elevated.

Repeat the exercise until you feel discomfort in your abdominal muscles. As your strength increases you can build up to a greater number of sit ups and even add weighted resistance.

The only way to build muscle is to push the muscle beyond its endurance limits.

Common mistakes:

If you choose to put your hands behind your head, make sure you don't pull your head forward while lifting your torso. There is a natural tendency to assist with your arms and hands but this will strain the muscles in the neck. No matter where your hands are during the exercise, always try to keep your head nuetral. Don't try to touch your head to your knees. Although it is good to raise your torso high off the ground you can go too far. If your back is starting to curl, you are straining your lower back muscles.

If you can't secure your feet properly you will be using your thigh muscles too much for this purpose and this will not benefit your abs. Some people have weak thigh muscles and they won't get the benefit in their abs if they can't do enough reps due to their weak legs.

Don't lie completely flat with your legs fully extended. In this old-fashioned style people would lie down with their arms outstretched over their heads and sit up until they touched their toes with their fingers. This type of sit up is not taught anymore due to the lower back problems that it caused.

Click these links if you want to learn more about cruches, planks, and other abdominal exercises and core training.

Some people prefer to keep their hands by their ears. Remember never to use your hands to pull your head up. This position is best for people with strong abs already, not beginners:

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