Does doing sit-ups hurt your cervical spine?

For people who seldom do physical exercise, they may have some questions before exercising, such as whether doing sit-ups will hurt the cervical spine. It is difficult for most people to avoid physical injuries, such as muscle strain, when exercising. So how should we prevent these things from happening in our daily lives? Next, let’s understand whether doing sit-ups will hurt the cervical spine and how to prevent physical injuries caused by exercise.

The spine of a normal adult should be straight when viewed from the front, with strong ligaments and muscles attached around it. When viewed from the side, it is curved, with four curves: cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral. Among them, the cervical lordosis, thoracic kyphosis, lumbar lordosis and sacral kyphosis are medically called the physiological curvature of the spine. The curvature of the spine makes it like a large spring, increasing its ability to buffer shocks, maintain its balance, and protect internal organs. The spine works closely and synergistically with the surrounding ligaments and muscles, allowing the spine to extend backward, flex forward, bend left and right, and rotate flexibly and freely.

However, a proper sit-up requires repeated flexion of the neck and bending of the waist, which puts a great strain on the back muscles and leads to muscle soreness after the exercise. More importantly, the lumbar spine is convex forward in a normal state, and the front edge of the lumbar intervertebral disc is thick and the back edge is thin. When bending forward like doing sit-ups, the front edge of the intervertebral space can narrow and the back edge can widen, increasing the pressure at the back of the intervertebral disc. If you bend your waist back and forth repeatedly for a long time, it can cause the intervertebral disc to protrude backwards, compressing the nerves and causing soreness, numbness, swelling and pain in the waist and lower limbs. In addition, prolonged neck flexion during sit-ups can easily cause neck muscle strain and cervical spine injury. Therefore, for sit-ups, it is recommended that:

⑴ Sit-ups with legs straight are not recommended. Many sports experts have pointed out that this exercise posture will generate 3300 Newtons of force in the spine and is highly correlated with low back injuries. Therefore, this type of exercise is not only ineffective, but also harmful.

⑵ You can do basic sit-ups: lie flat on your upper body, bend your legs, and use your abdominal strength to lift your head and shoulders; or you can do crunches, which only involve trunk movements. The difference from sit-ups is that during the movement, only the head and thoracic spine leave the ground, and the lumbar spine is flat on the ground, forming a torso flexion movement, increasing the participation of the abdominal muscles.

⑶For people who do regular physical exercise and have well-developed back muscles, moderate sit-ups can help enhance the elasticity of the abdominal muscles, eliminate excess abdominal fat, and enhance the toughness of the lumbar and cervical muscle groups. But there are a few details to pay attention to: ① Warm up well; ② Master the speed; ③ Pay attention to guiding the breath; ④ Pay attention to regulating your breathing after finishing.

⑷Office workers who sit for long periods of time are least suitable for doing sit-ups. This is because sitting for a long time, especially with the head down and the waist bent, has put a lot of pressure on the cervical and lumbar vertebrae, while sit-ups mainly rely on the strength of the abdominal muscles to drive the upper body. Completing the entire movement will cause the already "injured" cervical and lumbar vertebrae to be compressed again, aggravating the degree of damage. Therefore, sit-ups are not suitable for people who sit for a long time. It is recommended that they do "Little Swallow Flying" or "Five-Point Support".

⑸ Patients with lumbar disc herniation should try not to do sit-ups. If you have to do sit-ups, it is recommended to reduce the amplitude of the sit-up movements, such as doing half-body sit-ups. The movements should be performed gently and slowly, and avoid quick or sudden force movements.

⑹ Push-ups, plank support and other exercises can strengthen the abdominal muscles and exercise the lumbar muscles at the same time. There is no need to overemphasize sit-ups.

The above is a detailed introduction to the question of whether sit-ups will hurt the cervical spine and how to prevent physical injuries caused by exercise. For people who do not exercise regularly, they must do some warm-up exercises before exercising, and when exercising, they must start with simple movements to avoid causing damage to the body.