Cracking during sit-ups

"Alfred" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hey, all.

When I do sit-ups my back lets out a soft "cracking" noise
every time I come back down to the ground. There is only
one crack per sit-up, but it will happen every sit-up. If
I do crunches and keep my back two or so inches off the
ground there is no noise.

I have been doing morning and evening sit-ups on my carpet
with my feet under my dresser to act as a counterweight. I
do not have back problems and as far as I know back
problems do not run in my family. I run twice a week for
three miles with no back problems (shin splits are
different story...).

Anyone know if this is normal for sit-ups? Any help would
be appreciated.

Alfred

Ever crack your knuckles? (I don't, grosses me out). Did you
ever worry about it? Cracking a joint is from sudden
releases of gas bubbles in the joint, tendons and ligaments
popping back into place, or, in an arthritic joint, rough
surfaces rubbing together. Your back has a lot of joints in
it. If it doesn't hurt, you don't have arthritic joints,
and so you don't need to worry about it.

As far as the utility of a full situp, I thought crunches
were more effective at working the abdominal muscles, as the
strong hip flexors are very involved in a full situp.

Margaret

Mine does the same thing. I have a leg length discrepancy,
and when I used a heel insert to compensate, after about 2
months the cracking in my back went away altogether (it has
done it for 20 years). Then I stopped using my heel lift
because I didn't want to become too dependant on it. The
cracking came back within a month. Now I am back on the lift
- it is gone again!

Go figure.

Alfred said:

I have been doing morning and evening sit-ups on my carpet
with my feet under my dresser to act as a counterweight.

I think the legs under the dresser thing is bad for your
back. Keep your feet flat on the floor and still while you
use your ab muscles to lift yourself up (crunches) or do the
bicycle move (hands behind head, touch opposite elbow to
knee while staightening the other leg). Those big exercise
balls are good too, if you like equipment.

Most of my joints crack, inlcuding my back at times when I
do ab work. Ab work is a good idea for runners. It helps the
lower back, keeping you upright. As a woman who has had
three big babies, I know the value of strong abs :-)

Donna

mwright said:

"Alfred" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hey, all.

When I do sit-ups my back lets out a soft "cracking"
noise every time I come back down to the ground. There is
only one crack per sit-up, but it will happen every sit-
up. If I do crunches and keep my back two or so inches
off the ground there is no noise.

I have been doing morning and evening sit-ups

BIG mistake? Well, if you apply the present science to your
situation, yes.

Without recovery, the science tells us, we just break down
the tissues, we do damage. So, the harder one works, the
worse the body becomes. It takes at least 48 hours for a
muscle to recover from stress. If we do not push our limits
a bit, the improvement stops. The body responds to the
stress by rebuilding the muscle DURING RECOVERY. Do you have
only 12 hours of recovery between sessions? DOMS takes about
24 hours to appear, rebuilding at least 48 hours.

So, why not do abcurls/crunches, two or three sets to your
limit, two or three times a week? If you do not increase the
load and the set rep counts get larger than 20, you might as
well just do them once a week as maintenance. To get
stronger, you need to add to the load and you need longer
recovery times.

You want to strenthen the muscles (and other tissues) of
your core. So, you have a training regimen of twice a day
crunches and situps. Do you strenthen other muscles with the
same schedule? Do bench presses twice a day?

Your situp regimen tightens the hip flexors, which can put
additional pressure on the lower back if not balanced with
extensions and hip stretches.

Situps put a lot of stress on the spine. It, too, takes a
while to recover from stress, as bone is a living,
regenerating tissue. So one could even imagine a degradation
in the spine without adequate recovery.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

feet under my dresser to act as a counterweight. I do not
have back problems and as far as I know back problems do
not run in my family. I run twice a week for three miles
with no back problems (shin splits are different
story...).

Anyone know if this is normal for sit-ups? Any help would
be appreciated.

Alfred

Ever crack your knuckles? (I don't, grosses me out). Did
you ever worry about it? Cracking a joint is from sudden
releases of gas bubbles in the joint, tendons and
ligaments popping back into place, or, in an arthritic
joint, rough surfaces rubbing together. Your back has a
lot of joints in it. If it doesn't hurt, you don't have
arthritic joints, and so you don't need to worry about it.

As far as the utility of a full situp, I thought crunches
were more effective at working the abdominal muscles, as
the strong hip flexors are very involved in a full situp.

Margaret