Is abs exercise really bad for your back?

If you have been trained for a military fitness test or have been forced to do a presidential fitness test in a PE class, you know abs exercise.Someone holds it down Your feet, and you get up as many times as you can before the test is over.But once again, you may have Also I heard that abs exercises are bad for your back and all those gym teachers were wrong, so you should use crunches or boards instead. So what is the deal?

Where does abs exercise come from?

When you think about it, it’s a little strange that you need to do sit-ups in the first place. In what world do you need to lie down and get up again and again until your stomach hurts? What are we training for?

Abdominal exercises have been incorporated into military and paramilitary fitness tests due to concerns about the backs of military personnel. Studies have shown that people with weak abdominal muscles are more likely to have back pain and injuries. (This idea Has been questioned since then, But that’s another story. Specifically, the problem was not the strength of the abdomen, but the durability of the abdomen: HHow long can your core muscle work without giving up?

Abs exercise was the answer to this question. If new employees are able to contract their abdominal muscles repeatedly, they need to have good abdominal muscle endurance. Getting up from a lying position on the ground certainly asks many abdominal muscles. You’ve solved the problem, right?

Abdominal exercise problems

Abdominal exercises can hurt your back.This is abdominal exercise bad For your back-we are approaching it-but people often report back pain after doing sit-ups.

How does this happen? Now let’s take a simple anatomy lesson.

The main muscles of abdominal exercise are Assumption It works the rectus abdominis muscle, a 6-pack muscle. It extends vertically from the thorax to the pelvis, and when the thorax contracts, the anterior part of the thorax approaches the anterior part of the pelvis. It also serves to stabilize the torso in various positions. (The muscles on the back and sides also play that role.)

However, there is also a muscle called the hip flexor. This works to bring the thighs closer to the torso. Imagine curling up to the position of the fetus. The hip flexor is the muscle that brings the knee closer to the chest.

Standard PE lessons use both. The 6-pack muscles lift the shoulders off the ground and help the hip flexor bring the torso closer to the knees.

Therefore, there are two problems here. OAbdominal exercise is to use the abdominal muscles When Not just a test of the abdominal muscles, but a hip flexor.It really isn’t your Problem; You can strengthen your abdominal and hip flexors at the same time. This means that you are not testing what the test is supposed to be.But the second problem teeth About you personally: YIt may hurt.

How abs exercise can hurt your back

Therefore, abdominal exercises move the abdominal muscles and also the hip flexors. One of our hip flexors runs along the anterior part of the thigh (which is also the quadriceps), but a lesser-known muscle that can cause back pain during abdominal exercises. There is a flock.

This is a muscle group known as Iliopsoas.. These muscles connect the pelvis to the anterior part of the lower spine.In other words, IIn abdominal exercises, these muscles pull the spine when the pelvis is relatively fixed in place.

Well, usually this is not a problem. When using the hip flexors in daily life (or other gym lifts) to bend the hips, use other core muscles to support the torso and stabilize the spine.

but, Repeated, timed abs exercise test, The goal is to get as many people as possible in the specified time frame. No prize will be given for firm support or activation of the abdominal muscles rather than the hip flexors. They are not easy to measure. You will only be scored on the number of legal agents you have achieved. So your abdominal muscles get tired, but you continue. When the rectus abdominis muscle gets tired, Your hip flexors take over more and more work..This can cause back pain When, definitely, Injury.

Why abs exercise doesn’t really matter

Abdominal exercises are bad, right? Well, it’s more complicated than that.

I have study It turns out that abdominal exercises are cited in many places to support the statistics that they cause 56% of the injuries associated with the Army fitness test.What research actually It was a little more complicated to find. Yes, abs exercise was more likely to result in a soldier being injured than the other components of the test (running and push-ups). However, almost all of these were minor “injuries” that did not affect their obligations and did not require medical attention. (Reading between the lines, these seem to be people who felt pain after the test but recovered quickly.)

One of the ideas that abdominal exercises are dangerous is that repeated flexions of the spine over the years are bad for you. However, the authors of this study found no difference in injury rates between new employees and those who had been doing sit-ups for years.

Injury rate It was The largest soldier previously injured during test training, the least trained, and the largest soldier with the lowest score on the test. This strongly suggests that abdominal exercises are not destroying the soldier’s back, but are more likely to be injured due to their weakness. The authors also quoted a previous study that found that soldiers with the lowest scores on fitness tests were twice as likely to have back injuries during work as soldiers with higher scores.

Not surprisingly, people train for abs testing by doing a lot of abs exercises. (According to the injury study here, the training showed an average of about 300 abs exercises per week.) After a period of fatigue, a high person did abs exercises on his back. If you hurt, the problem is not a specific abs exercise.It’s a test, with thousands of tired people doing it during test training. recently, There is no evidence to suggest that just a few sets of abdominal exercises can cause injury as part of a normal exercise routine.

How to do sit-ups without hurt your back

These issues with abdominal exercises have been understood for many years. In the 1990s, several alternatives were proposed. Some of them have caught up.

First, looking back at the World War II fitness tests, abdominal exercises at the time were often done with your feet straight on the ground. (There is an illustration from the Army guide here.. ) Abdominal exercises in the bent legs were one of the early changes aimed at conducting tests focusing on the abdominal muscles.

In the 1990s, there was a wave of repulsion of abdominal exercises. At that time, You may have recalled that abdominal workouts have transitioned from abdominal exercises to abdominal exercises. Crunch.. This version of the crunch bends your knees, puts your hands behind your head, and lies on your back. Instead of sitting, I had to contract 6 packs of muscle to keep the tops of my head and shoulders off the floor. When performed slowly and under control, this movement moves the abdominal muscles with minimal involvement from the hip flexors.

Similar movements Magill curl up.. Bend one knee and straighten the other, but otherwise similar. Control slowly, pay attention to the lower spine, and prevent the arch from becoming too large. When the iliopsoas muscle pulls on the spine, it creates a depression under the lower spine. This is why you are told to press your back against a mat placed under your hands or hips.

Some of the military tests that use abs have changed the way members get abs, but they are still very similar to abs. Start by someone holding your foot, bending your knees, and lying on the ground. Each iteration is considered complete when the arm crosses the chest and touches the thigh.this teeth It’s a change from the previous style of abdominal exercises in the 1990s, and some departments of service call them “curl-ups” or “crunches.” But they look more like abdominal muscles than a standard crunch.

After being recognized as having the same problems as the old style abs movements (although it’s decades too late), there is a recent trend to phase out even these movements. The Army is now Board testthat’s why will you do NavyAnd the Marines are now Switching from crunch to board.. (For now, recruits can choose which one to do.) Air Force Offer Board, abdominal muscle, or Cross leg river scrunch, It’s a bit like a bicycle crunch.

So how do you need to move your abdominal muscles?

So far, this is a physical fitness test. Physical education classes and military fitness tests share the problem that hundreds of people need to make quick decisions. There is little or no equipment and the criteria are clear. They started with repeated abs exercise tests, modified abs exercises, and eventually replaced them with board tests that met the same criteria in the hope of reducing back pain complaints. (However, if your back begins to sag during the board test, don’t be surprised if your back hurts later.)

When it comes to us, this doesn’t really matter Own training. Of course, you can crunch and curl up as needed. However, you can also do sit-ups if needed. Abdominal exercises are not an issue in the following cases:

• Secure the core while moving
• Stop when your abdominal muscles get tired
• If you have a backache, please stop

Other exercises can hurt your back, so it’s a good idea to follow them when doing other movements that you might do in your yard or in your daily life, such as crunches and boards. These form tips not only allow you to return your abs to your repertoire, but also make variations of your abs such as Swissball abs, GHD abs, V abs, boat poses and more.

When you try to make your core stronger (or aim for that 6 pack for vanity—fine, I hear ya), remember that there is more exercise you can do than lying on the ground that strains your abdominal muscles. Like a peasant carry, heavy carry and hold is arguably one of the most functional ways to move your core. Exercises such as squats, deadlifts and rows can also help the core.And don’t forget Our comprehensive guide your whole You can choose the core and various exercises.