Is it okay to do sit-ups before going to bed at night?

As the concept of healthy exercise becomes more and more popular, many sports are gradually beginning to be accepted by people. Sit-ups are an exercise that has been widely recognized in recent years. It not only effectively helps us lose weight, but also has a great promoting effect on men's fitness training, abdominal muscles and other aspects. So what kind of effect does doing sit-ups before going to bed at night have on our body? Today I will give you a detailed explanation.

First of all, it is not recommended to use this movement for abdominal training. Sit-ups are not an exercise that stimulates the abdomen. Sit-ups do not involve the abdominal muscles (rectus abdominis) but the front thigh muscles (quadriceps femoris) and iliopsoas muscles. If your hip flexion ability is insufficient, then sit-ups will involve the abdomen to compensate for the hip flexion ability. Many people go to the gym to train their abdominal muscles, so the fitness trainer will naturally recommend crunches that specifically stimulate the abdomen rather than sit-ups.

The psoas major muscle in the iliopsoas muscle originates from the 12th thoracic vertebra and the 1st to 5th lumbar vertebrae, and the iliacus muscle ends at the iliac fossa. The insertion point of the iliopsoas muscle is the lesser trochanter of the femur. Therefore, strengthening the iliopsoas tends to lead to forward flexion of the trunk and anterior tilt of the pelvis. For modern sedentary people, the iliopsoas is one of the muscles that should not be "over-strengthened".

The purpose of exercise is to tighten muscles and skin, increase body metabolism, and increase the body's sensitivity to insulin. Sit-ups don’t actually exercise many muscles, and doing them too much can have a negative impact on the lumbar spine. Fitness coaches do not recommend sit-ups for weight loss. If you want to tighten your abdomen, it is best to do crunches, 20 per set, at least 3 sets, and rest for no more than one minute between sets. Gradually increase the number of sets, and you will notice changes in your abdomen if you stick to it for a month.

From this we can see that the best time to do sit-ups is the time before going to bed at night as we mentioned at the beginning. The human body's metabolism is relatively active at this time, and we can fall asleep after exercise, allowing muscle groups to recover so that they can better support our body strength the next day, so this time is the best time to exercise.