Sit-Up
oec:sit-up
A classic bodyweight core exercise that raises the torso from a supine position to an upright seated position via spinal and hip flexion.
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Also called: Situp, Sit-ups, Bent-Knee Sit-Up, sit up
How to do it
Setup
- Lie flat on your back on a mat with your knees bent at approximately 90 degrees and your feet flat on the floor about hip-width apart.
- Cross your arms over your chest or lightly place your fingertips behind your ears without pulling on your neck.
Movement
- Engage your abdominals and curl your head, neck, and shoulders off the floor, flexing your spine.
- Continue lifting by flexing at the hips until your torso reaches an upright seated position near your thighs.
- Pause briefly at the top while maintaining tension across your core.
- Lower your torso back to the floor in a controlled manner, unrolling through the spine until your shoulders and head lightly touch the mat.
Breathing
Exhale as you curl and sit up; inhale smoothly as you lower your torso back to the floor.
Cues
- Peel up off the floor
- Lead with your chest, not your neck
- Control the descent
Common faults
- Pulling aggressively on the back of the neck with the hands.
- Cross hands across the chest or touch fingertips lightly beside the ears, maintaining a neutral cervical spine.
- Using swinging arms or violent momentum to jerk the torso upward.
- Perform the movement smoothly, initiating with abdominal flexion before pulling through the hips.
- Hyperextending the lower back at the bottom of the rep.
- Keep your pelvis in a neutral or slightly posteriorly tilted position so your lower back does not violently arch.
Safety
- Individuals with lumbar disc pathologies or active low-back irritation should limit spinal flexion or opt for non-flexion core exercises like planks.
Muscles
Joints
- Lumbar spine: Flexion, Extension
- Thoracic spine: Flexion, Extension
- Hip: Flexion, Extension
Details
- Movement
- Spinal flexion
- Modality
- Calisthenics, Strength
- Mechanics
- compound
- Force
- pull
- Laterality
- bilateral
- Kinetic chain
- open
- Level
- beginner
- Equipment
- None
- Record
- Repetitions
- Load
- bodyweight, not applicable
Related
Sources
- wger: Sit-ups, by wger.de (CC-BY-SA-3.0)
This record: CC-BY-SA-4.0.