What's up guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
No!
I'm not laying down on the job today.
I'm actually down here because I feel like it is my job to show you guys how to start
doing the Sit Up right.
The Full Sit Up has been demonized in most Ab Training Programs.
Told you to stop doing it a long time ago, start using Planks instead of it.
Because the Full Sit Up will ruin your back.
I can tell you this, the Full Sit Up, as a Physical Therapist, could be a pretty bad
exercise, if you're not doing it right.
Now we know that the Sit Up is an exercise that we actually can't get away from depending
upon what you do for a living.
If you are somebody who's in the Military, or the Police Academy, or a Firefighter you're
going to have to do Sit Ups.
So we might as well learn how to do them the right way.
Here's the key, if you're going to do the Full Sit Up you want to make sure the only
thing you focus on is, what is your Pelvis doing at all times.
Now, with my pants we're going to actually be able to see what's going on here pretty
easily.
We have both a Posterior Tilt, where our low back is in contact with the ground and our
butt is kind of curved up and under.
And then we have an Anterior Tilt, where our butt and pelvis tilt forward this way and
you can see that there's space between my low back and the floor.
Now if you look at this part of my pants, right here, you'll be able to see that when
we're in a Posterior Tilt it's kind of angled a little bit straighter ahead,
and when I go into an Anterior Tilt, it's curved down more.
Now when we initiate the movement, we have to start from a Posterior position and end
in a Posterior position,
without ever going into an Anterior Tilt at any point in the motion.
Because what happens is, the exercise starts getting grilled, rightly so, when you go from
that Anterior, Posterior, Anterior, Posterior,
because you're causing a shearing force between your vertebrae.
And when you get that, you're actually passing that through into your spine, into the disks
of your spine.
You get a breakdown of the ring of the annular fibers around your disk that can eventually
lead to a leak or a rupture of your disk.
So what we want to do, is get into that Posterior Tilt.
So we do that by curling the butt under.
And then we initiate the curl on the way up from there, all the way through, keeping that
Posterior Tilt.
Ok we come down nice and slow eccentrically and we come back up again.
What you don't want to do, is you don't want to anchor your feet when you start the exercise.
Why?
Because as soon as you anchor your feet watch what happens.
I have my feet under here, if I pull, right, to anchor myself and actually give me some
leverage, look what happens.
Right there, into an Anterior Tilt.
We know that Hip Flexion or Hip Flexor activation will pull our Pelvis into an Anterior Tilt.
Well now what happens?
We go from an Anterior Tilt then into a Posterior Tilt, there's the shear.
That's what you don't want.
So you never want to hook your feet, especially not in the beginning of the exercise.
You can actually get away from it a little bit as you get all the way up to the top because
you've already completed the motion.
It's not shearing with motion.
That's going to be the worst thing.
So you want to be safe, just keep your feet out of it.
Get down to that Posterior Tilt, keep your feet off of the anchor and come straight up
from here and go back down again.
Ok, like I say guys, it's all about the Pelvis and what you do with it that determines whether
or not this exercise is a shit exercise, like it's been called,
or not bad at all, if you do it right.
Guys, like I said early on, some people, First Responders, Military Personnel, Police Officers,
Firefighters, you're going to have to do Sit Ups as part of your testing.
Let alone part of your training.
If you're going to do it, you want to do it right.
For those guys, we're actually releasing a brand new program next week, ATLEAN SPECIAL
TACTIX.
It's made for the guys that are preparing for the physical readiness exams in any of
those fields.
And we're going to help you do it and get better, not just at the exercises that are
being called for there,
but to improve your strength levels as well.
I think it's one of the most overlooked aspects of the physical readiness exams.
We're going to have you covered there, a 30 day Training Program to get you ready for
any one of your physical readiness exams.
That will be available at ATHLEANX.
In the meantime, if you found this video helpful, make sure you leave your comments and thumbs
up below.
Let me know whatever else it is you want to see here on Washboard Wednesdays and I'll
cover it.
Alright guys, I'll be back here again in just a few more days with another new video for
you.
See ya!