Sit-ups and crunches
need to be retired... It’s Time to Kill Off Sit-Ups and Crunches for Good. The two dated exercises put unnecessary strain on your body, and won't give you the washboard core you're looking for.
For better or worse, we are firmly headed into “get six-pack quick” season. It’s the fitness holy grail that launched a thousand Men’s Health covers, and this year, approaching a summer where most of us will take our shirts off in front of people for the first time in almost two years, it’s inevitable that many will revive the old standby.
Should they? Probably not. Most personal trainers and exercise physiologists caution against beach bod-driven regimens. Overworking “show muscles,” (the biceps, the calves, the abs), can come at the expense of a functional, full-body routine. Overanalyzing the size of those muscles usually leads to unrealistic expectations. If you double down on a diverse workout scheme, quality sleep and a diet that limits non-processed ingredients, you’ll naturally arrive at a tighter core, anyway — all while feeling good about yourself.
Regardless: post-pandemic, once gyms are open again, I know I’ll see a guy in the corner banging out crunches. All credit for the effort, but comparatively, it’s a waste of time. The crunch, along with its cousin, the sit-up (which has a longer range of motion — that’s the one someone holds your feet down for), constitute core training’s most ubiquitous move. But they also represent abdominal work at its most useless.
Attachment 36283
Attachment 36284
Attachment 36285
Attachment 36286
Attachment 36287