What should I do if my back and neck hurt when doing sit-ups?

Everyone knows that crunches can train abdominal muscles very well, but sometimes if an action is not performed in a standardized way, it may backfire! So what is the reason why crunches cause back pain and neck pain?

Causes of back and neck pain:

1. Insufficient abdominal core strength. Even if the abdomen is exerted consciously, the neck and back will still exert force uncontrollably.

You can also say that your abdomen has no strength, so you borrow strength from your neck. When your waist and abdomen core strength is not enough to support your sit-ups or crunches, your body will involuntarily borrow strength from other places (sit-ups use the strength of the hip joint, lumbar spine and neck) to force you to complete the movement.

2. Not focused! The training movements are not correct.

Intention is very important. The abdomen should always be kept tense during abdominal muscle training. Relax other parts of the body and isolate the abdomen. Use only the strength of the abdominal muscles to complete the movement. If you do not focus on the abdominal muscles and only think about completing the movement, you will not master the key points of the movement and the feeling of abdominal muscle contraction. Maybe you are too anxious when doing it.

When you are training, contract your abdominal muscles. Imagine your abdomen is a rubber band. Try to relax the rest of your body. Sink your Qi into your Dantian and tighten your abdomen without relaxing it. Remember to use the power of contracting your abdominal muscles to roll up your body.

3. Wrong action:

Why sit-ups are not an exercise for training abdominal muscles: This is because sit-ups involve hip joint activities in addition to trunk activities:

Rolling up is not doing it: When the upper body is rolled up, it is a trunk flexion movement, and the muscles contracted are mainly the abdominal muscles; when the upper body goes up further, it involves hip joint flexion, and the muscles contracted are the iliopsoas and rectus femoris. In other words, after doing it, it is no longer an exercise for training the abdominal muscles. The strengthening of the iliopsoas will cause the pelvis to tilt forward, increase the lumbar flexion, compress the lumbar nerves, and cause pain.

Correct your training movements:

1. Don't tilt your head back (relax your neck), tuck your chin into your chest, and keep your back flat.

2. Bend your legs. Do not sit up suddenly. Roll them up slowly. Feel the spine vertebrae leaving the ground one by one. When you lower them, lower them slowly one by one, just like rolling up a mat.

3. Don't hold your head, concentrate, and stretch your arms forward when rolling up. Stay relaxed and feel like someone is holding your hands and pulling you forward.

4. When you come up, do not let your lower back leave the ground, and do not stand up. Roll up as high as you can, stay and squeeze for one second. Then slowly return to the starting and ending positions along the original trajectory. Keep your abdomen tight at all times.

5. Be sure to go slowly. Many people are too anxious and do things too quickly, or they don’t pay attention to details and just roll it up and down without caring about anything else.

Stick to your ideals, stick to your beliefs, and keep moving forward. All the warriors on the road to fitness - applause for you!