Situps - Problems

[Creatre]

Over the past month or so I have been building up to be able to begin my training program in order to get in shape to pass the PRT. A little background that might have something to do with the problems: I 'm a skinny kid that's built to be a runner. I'm actually about to peak for training for a half marathon, so I'm running over 20 mile weeks right now. The first two weeks in the past month, I was doing pushups every other day, with crunches in between sets, and then lifting once a week. The past two weeks, I've been lifting 4 days a week, pushups and crunches every day, and situps at the gym on the bench thing made for situps. I can do 1.5 miles in about 9 minutes, trying to get that down a bit, and my pushups over the past month have increased from 15 max to 50 max, which is absolutely unbelieve, I'm not sure how I've jumped up so much. I'm not going to be taking the PRT for at least another 4 months, so I'm a long ways out, but I decided I wanted to go ahead and build up so I can crush it when the time comes.

Here's my problem: I have no problem with crunches, obviously because its only a partial situp almost, but I'm having problems with using my legs and cramping. Because I don't have someone to hold my legs, and nothing that I can find that would work as a subsitute in the house, I've been doing situps at the gym on the specific bench for it. Whenever I do them though, I tend to use my leg strength for some reason and they cramp up bad when I get to about 25. If my leg's don't cramp, my groin starts hurting bad. Well, I figured it'd eventually go away, but so far all its been doing is staying around, pretty much only letting me get to about 30 now before it does it so painfully that I have to stop. I figure with the groin, its just ligaments or joints that are having to be built up because I haven't done full situps in so long, maybe? Anyone have suggestions about the legs, I've tried different positions, but for some reason I always tend to try to use the strength from them to pull me up. I'm just going to push through it until I hope it just goes away, but if anyone has suggestions because of similar problems, that'd be awesome. Thanks in advance.

 

[jride200]

A $20 sit up bar can be bought at most sporting goods stores. It attaches to the bottom of a door.

 

[bb1125]

Try doing some situps without anyone or anything holding your feet. It will train you to use your abs rather than your quads and hip flexors, which is what seems to be cramping. You won't be able to pump them out quickly this way, just try to focus on form.

 

[Herc_Dude]

I get what feels like an acid build-up in my groin/quads area when I do crunches sometimes as well. Its not something that has kept my from maxing a PFT but it has been annoying at times. Best advice man is to just keep pushing through it. Maybe do some lunges after your running/crunches routine, when your quads are fatigued, can help build up those muscles to the point where it does not interfere with your crunches. Don't forget some good stretching of those specific areas. Best of luck.

 

[Creatre]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. I'm going to take everyone's advice so far. I'll get one of those bar's the next time I head out to a sport's store, and what bb1125 and devildog said will be taken to heart.

 

[jus2mch]

Slide your feet under the couch, and go to town.

 

[Creatre]

Slide your feet under the couch, and go to town.

Unforunately I'm a college student in a very very small dorm room, with hardly enough room as it is, so I don't have a couch.

 

[jus2mch]

Unforunately I'm a college student in a very very small dorm room, with hardly enough room as it is, so I don't have a couch.

No excuses!

 

[BACONATOR]

Unforunately I'm a college student in a very very small dorm room, with hardly enough room as it is, so I don't have a couch.

Get creative. We've all been to college and I know I had to make some awkward arrangements to workout in my room (if I didn't want to go to the gym). Use your bed, some heavy bags...hell, find a nubile coed to lay on your feet for some post-coital situp practice if you need to, but get it done somehow. Practice makes perfect, so practice practice practice (the situps that is..):icon_tong

 

[skim]

Get somebody to spot you at the gym. If you cant or decide not to ask someone, get a 45lbs weight and rest it on your feet so that it is holding your feet down. Use your towel as a cushion between the weight and your foot. I do this alot and I weigh about 185 and I am 5'10 or so, and it holds my feet down well. Max out in 2 minutes, and just push. If you can only do 30 then fine. Take a rest, then do 25, rest 10sec. then 20, rest 10sec ect. down to your last five. It burns but with that I can average now about 100 in 2 minutes. I was doing the sit-up bench, and when it came time for the PRT, it felt completely different. Practice according to how the PRT is done.

For push ups, I roll up my towel so it is about 3inches off the deck and push (with some time in the rest positon) for 2 minutes making sure I hit the towel. After 2 minutes, I will push another 15-20 then in the rest position, have some count for 15-20 seconds, then repeat. Through the remaining exercises, I will push 20-25 or so in between.

My last timed session on friday was 100 situps and 76 push-ups in 2 minutes. Just keep it up.

 

[Creatre]

Once again everyone thanks for the great advice. And bogey spotter, last week I had a 12 pack of mountain dew on my feet, which didn't work, so I switched it for a 24 case of water. Looked funny as anything. :icon_tong

 

[SubtoSky]

Sit-ups for dummies

Creatre,
The problem, it seems, is the very same that I have seen from many of the junior sailors that I have worked with before. You are most likely working against yourself. The PFA instruction gives proper guidence as to what constitutes a proper sit-up. The problem that occurs most often is when you go back down, you allow yourself to go all the way until your back is flat on the ground. The instruction says that only your shoulder blades need to make contact with the ground in the down position. Also in the up position your elbows can touch any part of your thighs. The key to obtaining the max on sit-ups is to get into a rhythm and stay there, and Pete's sake don't forget to breathe.

Cheers

 

[bb1125]

Creatre,
The instruction says that only your shoulder blades need to make contact with the ground in the down position. Also in the up position your elbows can touch any part of your thighs.
Cheers

Just so you know, at OCS, they go above and beyond the instruction. They'll take away situps if they even think you're not going down far enough (i.e., they want to see your back flat on the deck) or keeping perfect form, so don't sell yourself short. Also, they require arms to stay flat against the chest the entire time which is something I had never seen enforced in ten years worth of PFA's before I got to OCS. Finally, you can only rest in the up position. The in-PFA is by far the toughest, as far as having every rep scrutinized, so practice perfect form.

 

[BACONATOR]

Just so you know, at OCS, they go above and beyond the instruction. They'll take away situps if they even think you're not going down far enough (i.e., they want to see your back flat on the deck) or keeping perfect form, so don't sell yourself short. Also, they require arms to stay flat against the chest the entire time which is something I had never seen enforced in ten years worth of PFA's before I got to OCS. Finally, you can only rest in the up position. The in-PFA is by far the toughest, as far as having every rep scrutinized, so practice perfect form.

Not true. Maybe it varies for each class, but I clearly remember hearing that resting in the down position was permitted. I did on the PFA and was not corrected by any of the staff watching our form other than hearing "don't stop! Keep going!". A number of people did that I know of. My method of maxing was to push out 70 or so in a minute, and then do 2 more sets of 20 in the remaining minute. Without the rest, I couldn't max at all.

 

[BackOrdered]

And I heard from someone else you can't rest at all. I'm guessing it must vary from class to class and the best thing to do is to prepare as if you can't rest to be safe.