"unsupported" sit ups?

[ScottinSoCal]

I started exercising about 6 weeks ago, for general fitness reasons. I'm 50, male, and in reasonably good health (besides being a desk jockey and general couch potato for 25 years). I do the elliptical 5 days a week and other exercises 3 days a week. My question is about sit ups.

I tried standard sit ups and couldn't do them. Not because I couldn't sit up, but because my back ached every time I did them, to the point I couldn't stand up after. About two weeks in I noticed my back didn't hurt at all when I leaned over backward with no support, so I tried the ottoman. That worked beautifully.

I sit on the ottoman, pressed as close as it can get to the couch, with my feet hooked under the couch. I do a regular sit up, but when I'm flat, my back is hanging out in space, unsupported by anything. I definitely feel the pull in my lower abdomen. In the last month I've worked up to 50 sit ups, 3 times a week, but I was talking to a coworker and he said I was probably messing up my back. He couldn't explain how or why, he was just adamant that doing sit ups this way would cause me problems. I googled every way I can think of and can't find anything documented about my unusual method, pro or con.

Has anyone else heard anything like this? It works for me, and my back honestly feels better than it has in years, but I don't want to set myself up for some problem in the future.

 

[Jrahien]

Sit-ups aren't actually good for your back in the first place. Curling your spine while having the compressive load on it puts a lot of wear on your discs, and so you should be wary about doing them at all if you feel pain.

I would actually consider the ottoman to be beneficial, though. Without the ground providing a surface for your back to rest on, you're probably doing most (or at least more) of the movement at your hips now, instead of lifting each spine segment off the ground one at a time and curling your back.

So if you continue to experience no pain with your sit-ups, then by all means keep going with them. If you start to have any discomfort with them at all, I would stop before it gets worse. There are other exercises that actually work the abs better, such as "stirring the pot" with a Swiss ball or walking your hands out while in a plank.

 

[ScottinSoCal]

So if you continue to experience no pain with your sit-ups, then by all means keep going with them. If you start to have any discomfort with them at all, I would stop before it gets worse.

Good to hear. I started exercising after I installed 4000 lbs. of wood flooring in my house over a weekend. Lots of squatting down to install, standing up to get more, carrying 100 lb. boxes throughout the house. I had to call in to work for three days after I was done, because I was so sore I couldn't move. I decided that being out of commission over a stupid home project was ridiculous, and I had to get in better shape. My doctor is the one who told me most of my back problems are caused by my stomach muscles being much weaker than my back muscles, and I had to do something to strengthen them. I'm not looking to get bodybuilder type muscles, I just want to be in better condition, generally.

There are other exercises that actually work the abs better, such as "stirring the pot" with a Swiss ball or walking your hands out while in a plank.

I think I know what a plank is, I do those on the same morning I do my sit ups, but I don't know what a Swiss ball is, or what walking my hands out means. My version of a plank is laying on my side, then lifting myself up on my elbow and holding my body stiff. I hold it for (so far) 50 seconds, then relax. I'm up to three reps on each side of that before I can't do it anymore. Am I calling it the wrong thing? Is a plank actually something else?

 

[Jrahien]

What you described is a side-plank. The regular plank is simply doing the exact same thing, except on your front, either on your elbows or hands (push-up position). By "walk out with your hands", I mean exactly that. While holding that position, walk your hands forward as far as possible and then back. (If you need to do it on your knees instead, then do so.)

Swiss ball is just another name for the large exercise balls that all gyms have. Stirring the pot involves essentially a plank position with your elbows on the ball, and then moving your arms in a circle like you're stirring.