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I have done situps all my life, but lately they are bothering my lower back, and I have switched to crunches. Has anyone had a similar experience?

When situps are done as dmonstrated by Atlas in the course, the abs get an awesome workout. While I can do sets of 20 with crunches, the Atlas situp is more difficult to do. All are done s-l-o-w so it really works the abs. If you do them too fast, the rocking motion may hurt the lower back and do little for the target area. You might try some of the back exercises illustrated in the course as well.

I can't say that I have. I have substituted crunches for the sit-ups and they hurt my upper back, so I went back to sit-ups. But I have always done them with bent knees. I have read that they are bad for the lower back, but not if you do them with bent knees.

Bridge wrote:I have done situps all my life, but lately they are bothering my lower back, and I have switched to crunches. Has anyone had a similar experience?

If you hold your breath while doing sit-ups you could be adding un-wanted tension to the lower back, you can do them slow and breath in and out as you move up or breath out on the up, keep the back straight. Atlas does a crunch style exercise while he is sitting on a chair - it's in an older version of the course just after exercise 9 in lesson 4 and is un-numbered.

I've always had the understanding that sit-ups done fast or slow you are risking (over time)back injury, and that crunches are the safer way. I've read and heard this from many fitness experts. I'm not saying you shouldn't do them, but proceed with caution. I would stop if you are feeling pain see a doctor or a chiropractic. Just my opinion.

I was taught that for all the forward bending you should equal it with backward bending to avoid back troubles. A fellow I knew who went to the back clinic for help with his back was given backward bending exercises similar to the ones in the Dynamic-Tension System.