The Glade 4.0

Yes? No? I frakking hate these things. I seem to end up with nothing more than a sore back. They are a ton easier on a machine but at this point I have me and a floor. I'm thinking of substituting leg lifts (laying on your back, hands under your butt, chin to chest and holding feet off the floor about 6 inches)?

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Hokanu
Duty is a magnificent blessing because it is the sign of trust from the universe.
END OF LINE.

I hate em too but they are a good workout. I like to either hook my toes under something or keep my knees bent and flat with the soles of my shoes together.

If you want to do something else do crunches or leg raises yeah. Theres tons of variations too so mix it up.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

I hate situps with a passion... if situps was a person, I will murder him with a spork and feed his yummy bits to piranahs to ensure no one will ever resurrect him... Ever.

Instead I do the leg lift thingy, except I move my legs up til 90degrees, then lower them as low as possible without touching the ground. Your lower stomach will hate you for it btw.

If your back is hurting, don't do them so fast.

A lot of people are too jerky with their situps, and you can hurt yourself pretty badly with that.

Go easy, and focus more on form than number- it's the time your muscles spend working, not the number of movements you do that counts.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Sit-ups or crunches?

Sit-ups should be with something stabilizing your feet. They tend to be hard on the lower discs in your spine. I like to do them on the decline benches at the gym that have ankle and knee braces. These are the same benches you often see people using to do decline benchpess - they work for both.

When you get comfortable at a given incline, add in a medicine ball, and when you get really comfortable, add in a partner you throw the medicine ball to.

Leg lifts will work your lower rectus abdominis (the six pack muscles). Add a twist to emphasize obliques as well.

If you still are getting pains, go buy a stability ball, the giant bouncy balls. They are about $15 or so, not too expensive.

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The nice thing about the stability balls is that they require lateral and medial stability too, not just longitudinal meaning it engages your obliques (the muscles on the sides of the six pack muscles). Do them slowly at first, get a feel for the balance. You can do tons of lifts on the stability ball too, once you get used it, like dumbell bench press, skull crushers, sit and do single arm bicep curls etc, but for now, do the crunches.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

Why do they always make it looks so easy...Ow..ow..

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Vivere Senza Rimpianti

My problem with sit-ups is that I always just end up scooting across the floor. It doesn't matter if I anchor my feet under furniture, use a mat or have someone sit on my feet.

I do hanging leg lifts now instead.

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situps do put a strain on your back.
Its recomended you do something a little different.
Try just crunches (just get your shoulder blades off the ground)

I usually do:
crunches, reverse crunches, full body crunches (though one of my vertebrae pop when I do these, so I go very easy on them), leg lifts, cross body elbow to knee, and then stick your legs straight up in the air (from your back) and reach up and touch your toes.

Speaking of sit-ups, can anyone suggest some good exercises to get the obliques and the lower abs? I've tried twist crunches, side crunches, hip raises, bicycles, etc., but I only ever feel the burn in my upper abs.

@RD:

In all honesty, you may therefore be doing it wrong.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Yeah, I figure I must be. I'm guessing my obliques and lower abs are sufficiently weak that I somehow compensate/cheat by engaging my upper abs more than I should. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, though. *grumble*

If I remember I'll check some of my books at home RD. I forget all the ab exercises they had me doing, but there were a bunch of em.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Cool, thanks Dash.

RD, try the following.

Start with leg lifters. Pretty much can't not use your lower abs with those. Legs straight, 1" off the floor, bring straight up (keeping your legs straight) and then back down to 1" off the floor. Don't let your legs touch.

For the obliques, try sideways situps. Straight leg, rotate onto one hip and with hands behind your head, try and touch your elbow to your hip. Obviously you won't get there, but that's the feel of the action you want.

If you have a partner, you can also do leg lifters where your partner stands at your head and throws your feet back down and side to side. Make sure your legs don't touch the ground! Tho you want to be in good shape before you jump into those.

I was going to suggest side crunches and leg raises. But just to be clear, you want to do this just because you want to hit everything or... ?

If it's for aesthetics (i.e. I wanna see my abs pop and lose love handles!) that's a diet issue. Need to drop to roughly 10%ish bf.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Cool, thanks guys. I'm definitely going for both strength and aesthetics, so I know the body fat % will have to come down for the latter.