Are Sit-Ups Obsolete? Here's What Fitness Experts Think!

Is it time to quit the sit-up? According to fitness experts, the answer is a big yes.

"It's well past time, for example, to deep-six the sit-up, an outdated exercise today viewed as a key cause of lower back injuries," an editorial published on Military Times advised. "Experts say there are better measures of core strength that have the added advantage of being less prone to cheating."

Further, The Wall Street Journal noted that the Canadian Armed Forces had recently taken out the sit-up from its repertoire of fitness tests due to "potential injury" and lack of relevance to the usual military tasks.

Additionally, the publication also quoted P90X workout series creator Tony Horton as saying that he no longer performs the sit-ups or even the crunches himself.

"I really believe that the traditional, antiquated crunch has seen better days, and it's time to make a change," he said.

Spine biomechanics professor Stuart McGill explained that sit-ups "can put hundreds of pounds of compressive force on the spine."

In a couple of studies already published, he found that the said forces, plus the flexing motion, can affect the discs in the spinal column, eventually causing them to bulge from the repeated squeezing. The bulging can, in turn, press on the nerves and trigger back pain, possibly even causing disc herniation.

Meanwhile, personal trainer and world class powerlifter Jordan Syatt said in 2013 that the sit-up may lead to disc herniation, echoing Dr. McGill's observations, The Sydney Morning Herald said.

"One study from 2010 found that the most effective exercises for engaging abdominals were not sit-ups, but roll-outs and pikes using a swiss ball," the Australian publication added. "A new health report by Harvard Medical School adds that sit-ups or crunches target just a few muscle groups."

The plank pose has also been pushed forward as a better alternative to the sit-up, as it allows one to engage the front, side, and back muscles of the body - more muscle groups than sit-ups or crunches target.

"For a strong and stable core, stick to ab exercises which force you to resist movement rather than create it," Syatt suggested.

The plank has been advocated by U.S. Naval Academy's executive officer for physical education Cmdr. David Peterson as a replacement for the curl-up in the Navy's fitness test. He argued that it was less likely to cause injury and was actually more relevant to naval operations, WSJ relayed.

Will you be ditching the sit-up right away? Tell us your thoughts about this in the comments below.

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