The arguments for or against sit-ups and other various spine flexion exercises have\u00a0raged on for some time now.<\/p>\n
In light of this current battle, I found an article published in a recentMedicine & Science in Sports & Exercise\u00a0<\/em>to be rather interesting\u00a0–\u00a0<\/em>Effects of Sit-up Training versus Core Stabilization Exercises on Sit-up Performance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This study evaluated the effects that core stabilization training would have on the traditional sit-up test utilized by the armed forces.\u00a0 1467-subjects, ages 18-35, completed the 12-week training program and final testing.\u00a0 Of the 1476-subjects, 761 were placed into a core stabilization program and 706 were placed into a traditional sit-up program used to prepare soldiers for their physical fitness test.<\/p>\n The Exercise Groups<\/strong><\/p>\n Traditional Exercise Program<\/em><\/p>\n The traditional exercise program group performed sit-ups, sit-ups with trunk rotations and abdominal crunches in their training program<\/p>\n Core Stabilization Exercise Program<\/em><\/p>\n Those in the core stabilization exercise program performed a variety of stabilization exercises such as side-bridges, glute bridges, bird-dogs, woodchoppers, and abdominal crunch draw-ins.<\/p>\n Results<\/strong><\/p>\n As expected, both groups significantly improved their sit-up performance after the 12-week training program.\u00a0 Interestingly, the sit up performance was not significantly different between the two groups, even though the core stabilization group did not even perform sit-ups in their training program.\u00a0 In fact, the core stabilization group demonstrated a significant improvement in sit-up pass rate by 5.6% compared to the traditional sit-up training groups 3.9%.<\/p>\n Researcher\u2019s Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIncorporating a core stabilization exercise program into Army physical training does not increase the risk of suboptimal performance on the Army\u2019s fitness test and may offer a small benefit for improving sit up performance.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n My comments<\/strong><\/p>\n One of the arguments that those in favor of spine flexion exercises make is,\u00a0\u201cAthletes go through this movement in sport, and so we need to make sure they train it so that they are prepared for it when it happens.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Who is not prepared for spine flexion?\u00a0 Seriously!\u00a0 I haven\u2019t done sit-ups in years, but I know that I can get down and bang them out if I absolutely need to.\u00a0 This study clearly demonstrated that 12-weeks without performing sit-ups had no negative impact on sit-up performance.<\/p>\n In addition, we spend most of our days in flexion (seated).\u00a0 Why do we need to train that movement\u00a0more in the gym?\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t we try and break that pattern in the gym and do something else?<\/p>\n Obviously, there are some people who can go through life and do sit-ups everyday and never have a back problem.\u00a0 As well, there are those that may do all the stabilization training in the world and still sustain a back injury.<\/p>\n I think of it like smoking \u2013 some will get cancer and others will smoke 2-packs a day until they are 80-years old with no ill effects (I call those people cockroaches).<\/p>\n At the end of the day, you need to evaluate your exercise menu and determine if this is a movement that you want to program or not.\u00a0 Whether we are talking about sit-ups, back squats or bench press, everyone will have a different\u00a0risk vs. reward<\/em>\u00a0when it comes to training and as long as you have a good reason to do what you are doing, then go for it.<\/p>\n I dropped the sit-ups a long time ago and I feel very confident about my decision based on the things that I have read.\u00a0 Having a strong core goes way beyond sit-ups or plank exercises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The arguments for or against sit-ups and other various spine flexion exercises have\u00a0raged on for some time now. In light of this current battle, I found an article published in a recentMedicine & Science in Sports & Exercise\u00a0to be rather interesting\u00a0–\u00a0Effects of Sit-up Training versus Core Stabilization Exercises on Sit-up Performance. This study evaluated the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-strength-and-conditioning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions\/326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/optimumsportsperformance.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}