Why hull lifts are harmful and how to make them safe

Weak abdominal muscles make exercise dangerous

The main problem when doing core lifts is weak rectus abdominis muscles. To make it easier to understand the reason, we will divide the exercise into two phases:

twisting, when you lift the upper part of the body off the floor, and the lower back remains pressed to the floor;
lifting the body when you lift your lower back off the floor and move into a sitting position.

In the first phase, the contraction of the rectus abdominis muscle pulls you forward.

When the lower part of the spine is lifted off the floor, the hip flexor muscles are involved in the work: the iliopsoas muscles, the rectus femoris (one of the heads of the quadriceps), the sartorius muscles, and the tendons of the fascia lata of the thigh. Due to them, the body bends at the hip joint, and you move into a sitting position.

Strong abdominal muscles twist the pelvis during the lifting phase so that the load from the lumbar spine is relieved and the exercise becomes safe.

What happens if your abs are weak? After the twisting phase, you cannot hold the core with the rectus abdominis muscles and try to rise with the hip flexor muscles. The pelvis moves backward, the lower back flexes, and compression of the vertebrae is created. The iliopsoas muscle pulls the vertebrae forward, disrupting the neutral position of the spine, which negatively affects its health.

In reality, correct and incorrect techniques look something like this:

If you do several approaches incorrectly, you may feel pain in the lumbar spine. And if you already have back problems, then you will only exacerbate the situation.

How to fix it

Replace ups with a twist or bar

Instead of lifting the body, do twists without lifting the lower back from the floor. This will protect the spine from injury and will strengthen the rectus abdominis muscles.

However, twisting has its own danger. This time we are talking about tension in the cervical spine. Some beginners push their necks forward a lot. Repeated repetitions of this exercise plus working at a computer with constant tension in the cervical spine - and training can turn into pain. But there is a way out.

When doing twists, try to keep your neck relaxed, do not pull your chin to your chest.

You can also replace the lifts of the body with a bar or pulling the knees to the chest while hanging on the horizontal bar.

Raise the body slowly

If you slow down the repetition too much, you simply won't be able to stretch yourself with the hip flexor muscles. In addition, slow body raises are a great option for working out the press. So he will strain much more than during fast or sudden movements.

There is an interesting variation on this exercise - a slow twist with arms above your head and straight legs. Lie on your back, straighten your legs, stretch your arms over your head and begin to twist, lifting the body. The goal is to complete the exercise as slowly as possible. After straightening, begin to descend, too, very slowly and, if possible, linger at the point at which your muscles feel the most tension.

That's all. Do the exercises correctly and you will protect yourself from injury at the gym and during home workouts.