Many friends will strengthen their abdominal strength by doing sit-ups during exercise. But many people don't know the dangers of doing sit-ups. Stuart McGill, a professor of spinal biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, said: Sit-ups will put hundreds of pounds (dozens of kilograms) of pressure on the spine, which will eventually lead to disc herniation. At the same time, friends who have just practiced abdominal muscles, the strength of abdominal muscles is very weak, and the body will naturally borrow the strength of crotch and waist. Abdominal muscle training basically has no effect. Many primary and secondary schools in China still insist that students meet the standards. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan have changed the traditional posture of sit-ups in various schools and understood the unscientific truth of "holding your head with both hands". However, the universities, middle schools and primary schools in Chinese mainland have not made any adjustment at present. In this regard, the education authorities urgently need to introduce standards for sit-ups to protect children's health.
Rumors:
It's not sit-ups that hurt the spine, but hands on your head.
Sit-ups are one of the commonly used methods to exercise abdominal muscles, and they are also the index to test waist and abdomen strength in the National Standard for Students' Physical Fitness and Health. Strong abdominal muscles not only show the strength of our abdominal muscles, but also help to control the waist circumference, prevent the pelvis from leaning forward and maintain the physiological balance of the spine. Regular sit-ups can enhance core muscle strength, and also help to improve teenagers' physical qualities such as agility, coordination, responsiveness and balance, and master more sports skills and events.
Recently, however, there is a saying on the Internet that doing sit-ups will increase the risk of spinal injury. The United States and Canada have stopped doing sit-ups.
In fact, sit-ups have not been stopped, but have been regarded as one of the evaluation indexes of health physique evaluation standards by China, the United States, Canadian, Singaporean, China, China and Hongkong. However, the biggest difference between countries in the requirements for testing standard movements lies in the position of upper limbs. The standard posture of "hands behind your head" stipulated in China's National Student Physical Health Standard is consistent with the physical fitness test methods of European teenagers and Canadian Health, Sports and Leisure Association. Singapore uses earmuffs, Hong Kong uses the school physical fitness award scheme and the physical fitness test of the American Sports Medicine Association, with hands crossed on the chest.
So where did the saying that sit-ups hurt the spine come from? In fact, the initiator of this statement is a report of TVBS News Station in Taiwan Province Province, China on August 22nd, 2065438. It is reported that a 25-year-old man in Taiwan Province Province felt weak from the neck down after doing several sit-ups. After examination, the local doctor explained that the man sat up with his head in his hands, which caused the cervical blood vessels to burst and the blood clot pressed the nerves, leading to paralysis below the neck. The news that "sit-ups lead to paralysis" is an example, but it does happen around us. So what is the reason why sit-ups "cause paralysis"?
In fact, sit-ups with your head in your arms are the chief culprit of "paralysis". The requirements for sit-ups in the 20 14 and 20 18 editions of the National Standards for Students' Physical Fitness and Health are that "the subjects lie on their backs on the mat with their legs slightly apart, their knees bent 90 degrees and their hands and fingers crossed behind their heads." The companion presses his ankle joint to fix the lower limb. "
It is necessary to draw the key point here: "Put your hands and fingers behind your head."
In our actual exercise process, it is wrong to interpret "putting your fingers behind your head with your hands crossed" as "holding your head with your hands". In the correct movement, both hands only support the cervical spine to prevent the neck from stretching back (raising its head), causing back muscle tension and affecting the quality of movement. In the actual exercise and even in some tests, you will see that many people will hold their heads by their hands and suddenly pull their heads forward. As we all know, the action of pulling the head forward with both hands will cause great pressure on the cervical spine, and the strength of the joints and muscles of the head and neck is relatively weak. This kind of pulling may cause sports injury, and even lead to dislocation of cervical vertebra, which is life-threatening. It can be seen that a key to the correctness of sit-ups is to see whether your hands are "holding your head".
Parents are worried about the risk of spinal injury caused by sit-ups, but this is still the concern expressed in the National Students' Physical Health Standard for universities, middle schools and primary schools in China. First of all, I understand parents' concerns, but there is no experimental data that directly proves that sit-ups are directly related to spinal injury. So you can safely do sit-ups, but when doing sit-ups practice, you should master the essentials of action and the degree of exercise. Remember not to do sit-ups when you are tired, don't twist your body and lift your body, and don't do sit-ups with your hands on your head. Secondly, in order to strengthen the strength of abdominal muscles, teenagers can also avoid holding their heads by doing sit-ups, for example, crossing their hands on their chests, or putting their hands on their sides and front sides, instead of "jerking" in the process of doing it, just slowly ups and downs; In addition, exercise can also be done on demand, and the movements are not necessarily complete. Lifting the upper body to do half ("shrimp roll") can also achieve the effect of exercising abdominal muscles.
Wu Dongming National Physical Fitness Research Center, Institute of Sports Science, State Sports General Administration? associate research fellow
Expert: Sun Biao, Professor of Nanjing Institute of Physical Education.
Producer: Cop China-Scientific Refutation