Sit-ups!

[Buckeye Mike]

I have a physical fitness test in January for a job, and it's stressing me out to the point that I'm considering hiring a personal trainer JUST to help me with the sit-up portion of the test. Here's what I need to do:

- One and a half mile run in 11:58
- 33 push-ups in a minute
- 40 sit-ups in a minute (hands locked behind head, elbows must touch knees)

I can already do the push-ups, and will be fine with my run by January. My problem is I've been doing crunches, not sit-ups since I was 19 years old (am 28 now) and am having LOTS of trouble with these.

I can probably do 25-30 sit-ups in a minute, but it's VERY difficult for me. I'd like to be able to do 50 comfortably.

Should I hire a trainer to help, or is there a simple program I can follow to help me meet (and exceed) the requirements?

Any advice would be most helpful.

 

[dswithers]

Situps heavily involve the illias and psoas muscles in the hips as well as the abs. Crunches isolate the abs. So esentially you are using some muscles you have never used before. I would recommend oyu forget about the time limit for a few months and do sit ups for reps. Start out doing 25 situps every day for one week. Then next week do 30 every day. Add 5 every week until you are doing 100 or so. Then you could add weight. That is hold a 10 pound dumbell or plate behind you head and do 25 situps (or as many as you can). Then drop the dumbell and finish out the 100. When you can do the first 25 with 10 pounds for a week, up the weight a few pounds for the next week. A few months of following this routine and you should easily be able to do situps at a 1 per second rate (60 in a minute). Then you can cut back to doing situps 2 or 3 times a week to maintain that level. In the Marines we used to have to do 80 situps in 2 minutes. This type of routine kept me able to do max the situp test every time.