5 Reasons You Should Avoid Doing Sit-Ups

"Change means that what was before wasn't perfect. People want things to be better."
Esther Dyson

It's time to change your abdominal training program, change it for the better. It's time to say No to sit-ups and by doing so allow room for safer and more effective exercises that will fortify and strengthen your abs and spine.

The reason you may ask? The exercise poses to much of a risk compared to the benefits and no matter how you put it, getting hurt is not a lot of fun.

Here are 5 reasons why you should avoid doing sit ups:

1. You can't spot reduce, you can only spot build.

I know you want a flatter stomach or wash board abs so it may seem logical to do sit-ups and crunches to help your tummy fat go away. Fat loss doesn't work that way. You can build the muscles of the abs but that does not reduce the fat storage sitting above them.

Fat loss can only be accomplished through a sound nutrition and comprehensive exercise program.

2. Over training one movement pattern at the expense of others is a sure-fire way to create muscle imbalances.

The body was designed to move in many ways. No where in the body is that more apparent than with the abs. They help you bend, extend and twist in countless ways.

The body strives to perfect a hundred different movement patterns that activate a countless number of muscles.

By performing the same movement over and over again, like crunches and sit-ups, you set the body up for repetitive stress injuries.

These mall movements can create muscle imbalances in the torso. This creates a sub-optimal environment that can decrease the function and the potential of your body. In worst case scenarios it can cause low back pain and more.

3. The Abs do more than flex the spine, they do so much more.

The abs have two primary jobs.

The first one is bracing the body. You brace every time you reach, push, pull, throw, swing or kick. Any athletic movement requires bracing at some time during the movement and in most cases, twice. You also brace during every day activities like when you pick up an object from the floor with one hand and even when you're only opening a door.

The second primary job is to create the bridge between the legs and upper body to transfer power. Take a tennis fore-hand swing for example. The upper body and trunk rotates back in preparation to hit the ball, then the hips will rotate forward creating power for the swing. The the abs will then brace creating the 'bridge' that will work to rotate the torso and arms forward to strike the ball.

This is just one example of how the abs are designed to function. If you look closely you can find many examples of this function through out our daily and athletic lives.

4. Your spine flexes all day long

We flex our spine all day long. A typical day for the average person starts by waking up and sitting at breakfast with one's spine flexed (bent forward). Then this person commutes to work for an hour and then sits at work for eight hours all with the spine flexed. After a day of sitting, the individual drives home and eats dinner flexed and then sits on the couch and watches a couple hours of TV with the spine in a flexed position.

There should be one place the abs and spine should not have to flex and that is during your fitness program.

The health of your back depends on your ability to balance the work load, movements and stress that you place on it.

5. Sit-Ups produce the same force in the disc that causes disc bulges and disc herniation.

It's estimated that 80% of the population will see a doctor or chiropractor at some point in their life due to back pain.

According to Stuart McGill, a professor of spine bio-mechanics at the University of Waterloo, sit ups produce the exact same force in the spine that can create disc bulge and disc herniation, two of the most common low back injuries.

Does it make sense to perform exercises that can create common back injuries?

I didn't think so either.

The Bottom Line

These are the 5 reasons of why you need to stop doing sit-ups immediately.

In it's place start using planks and leg lifts to strengthen your core. These two types of abdominal exercises are much safer on your spine and there are countless variations and modification that you can use.

Take these recommendations and apply them today in your program, your back will thank you for it.

If you found this article helpful, you might like to visit http://www.precisionfitnesstrainer.com/ where you will find more life changing fitness articles that will help you transform your body today.

Edward Scaduto is a Fitness Coach. He helps his clients change their lives one healthy habit at a time.

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Three Tips to Avoid Binge Eating

Binge eating is a serious issue and it can plague anyone no matter how prepared they may or may not be for the event. That being said it becomes very important to understand what may lead up to binge eating and of course how you can avoid doing it in the future.

The cause

First of all, binge eating can be caused by a number of different factors. One of course could be depression which is caused by influences at either home or work. It could be an issue with family, or it could be a project you have taken on. Either way, binge eating can easily become a problem which leads to even more issues down the road. There are other causes for binge eating of course, aside from depression, and when this issue occurs, you are going to need to seek some kind of treatment or relief. It all starts with something to break the cycle.

Breaking the Cycle

How do you break the cycle exactly? What does it take to return to a healthy standard of living? If you continue your binge eating activities you will gain weight, heighten your cholesterol, and increase your chances for heart attack. If you wish to break the cycle, you will need to find something to replace the activity.

Replacing the Activity

Replacing the binge eating activity is your best hope of eliminating the problem. This might not seem helpful, and you might find it difficult to find a replacement, but you could take up exercise, or you could even adopt a hobby. There are plenty of hobbies for you to choose, from chess all the way to rock climbing. Whatever you choose, it will likely help to curb your unhealthy eating habit.

Create Routines

Routines are different from hobbies in a few ways. First of all, a routine is something that you establish for yourself, and you will perform it on a daily basis. In your routine you can set your meal routine at a specific time as this will ensure you only eat at the times you dictate. To set your routine in stone it would be a good idea to write it down and post it somewhere that you will see every single day. This will help you significantly and will allow you to bring some much needed structure into your life.

These are three great tips for you to follow, but you need to remember that it all starts with you. Once you learn to implement these tips into your life you will need to stick with it, and of course ensure that you do not give into temptation. It will be impossible to remove all of the factors from your life, but you can at least remove some of them and learn to live a better life.

Darragh Holland is a Cavan Personal Trainer and also runs his own Bootcamps.

He has helped people to lose weight and get toned so be sure to check out his Cavan personal training studio.

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Tips to Avoid Overtraining

When you are working out to improve your fitness levels, you must be careful about avoiding overtraining as it may injure your body. Overtraining, without providing sufficient amount of rest to your body, can cause muscle injuries, strains, sprains and tendinitis. It may even prevent muscle growth and weaken your immune system resulting in flu, cold and other health problems. Following are some tips provided by boot camp fitness programs to avoid overtraining and gain in strength.

Minimize the Frequency of Workouts
Some fitness freaks undergo rigorous training five to six times a week and do not allow the body sufficient amount of rest. Many other fitness enthusiasts concentrate on the different body parts on different days of the week. Instead of subjecting your body to this rigor, you should limit yourself to not more than a couple of intense workouts giving a gap of one or two days between each workout. Instead of 5 sets of exercise, do 3 sets and switch to a couple of full body workouts every week. Also, it is recommended that you practice compound movements or multi-joint exercises such as shoulder presses, pull downs, push ups, bar dips, bench presses, dead lifts, lunges, leg presses and squats as they offer more workout to the different body parts, while promoting better muscle growth.

Adequate Sleep
In order to obtain adequate recovery between your training sessions, you need a minimum of 8 hours of sound sleep every day to enable muscle growth and optimal release of growth hormones. You also need to eat sufficient amount of food to provide energy to your body.

Alternate between your Exercise Routines
Doing the same set of exercises every day can inspire boredom and disinterest. To prevent this, you should introduce some sort of variety in to your exercise routine. For e.g. you can alter the order of your exercises or you may take up a few new exercises. If you have been doing squats and bench presses, switch to push ups and bar dips or leg presses and lunges. You may also alternate between upper body exercises and lower body exercises during different workouts. Many fitness enthusiasts maintain the same speed or tempo all throughout their exercise regimen. They should instead start off with a slower tempo and graduate to a faster speed.

Allow a Prolonged Break
When you work out too frequently and too vigorously week after week, you might experience cramps and muscle soreness. In these cases, giving your body two days of rest might not be sufficient. If you push your body too hard, it might not be ready for the next workout. Allow your body 8 to 10 days of rest and let it recover fully. Reserve every 4th week for these periodic rests. This will provide your body with the opportunity to recuperate from muscle tears, pulls, injuries and soreness.

Additional Tips for Avoiding Overtraining
A post workout nutrition, in the form of a protein and carbohydrate shake is a must after intense workouts. Eat a small meal an hour later. Take multivitamin pills to curb nutrition deficiencies and fill your diet with sufficient amount of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and omega 3 oils.

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