The Sit-Up Is Dead. Here's What You Should Be Doing Instead

*ALL THE PRAISE HANDS!*

21 March, 2018
The Sit-Up Is Dead. Here's What You Should Be Doing Instead

If you are a human, you've probably hated sit-ups since your grade school gym teacher made you crank out a minute's worth of reps as part of your annual fitness assessment. They're second only to the mile run, during which the phrase "FML" was born. Sit-ups sucked then and still do. They're like repeating the worst part of your day — lifting your head off the pillow — over and over and over.

But now lazies aren't the only ones saying enough is enough: In a recent editorial, editors of Navy Times, an independent publication that covers — what else — the U.S. Navy, are saying it's well past time for the Navy to nix the sit-up portion of the physical readiness testing that sailors are required to pass twice a year. It's not just that sit-ups have nothing to do with the actual work involved in serving in the military. It's also because sit-ups are considered a key cause of lower-back injuries. Evidently, the move puts undue stress on your lower spine and hip flexors. And that's an excuse to get out of sit-ups that you probably never even considered.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal also pokes a hole in the myth that sit-ups are an A+ core exercise. Research suggests they're less effective at strengthening the abdominal muscles than Swiss ball exercises, like ball roll-outs and hip pikes performed in plank position with your feet on the ball. Plain old planks and modified crunches performed with your palms under your lower back, where you only just lift your head and shoulders off the ground, are also considered safer options that activate the abs. (And those aren't the only exercises that work better than crunches.)

Granted, those moves can be even more challenging than the sit-ups and regular crunches that everyone loves to hate. But because no one's about to argue with nixing an exercise so consistently despised, can we all call the whole sit-up thing off? Plank ya later.

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Credit: Cosmopolitan
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