The worst and best about abs

There are many abs exercises, some good, some bad, but let’s go to the basics for now: crunch and sit up.
Sit up is a standard but everybody knows the problem it involves: a very important recruitment of the hip flexors. It means 2 things:
- You work more the hip flexors (about 70%) than the abs (about 30%).
- You may get low back problems due to the overload of the hip flexors.

So the fitness professionals popularized over the year the famous crunch: of course it’s safer, but here a little surprise: for people with low back issues, it’s doesn’t solve the problem because the hip flexors are still involved.
Also this exercise become quickly ineffective except if you commit to do hundreds of reps: personally I do not have time for that!

The great alternative is the Janda sit up: this is a variation of the sit up but you put a great tension on your abs while your hip flexors are inhibited, flexing your hamstring. It means you work your abs 100% with only a few reps per set.

This exercise is the safest and the more effective: if you have a very limited time and want to train your abs, this is the perfect choice.

Specific equipment for the Janda sit up: Own the Rolls Royce of Ab Machines