“The superstition, confusion, and fraud surrounding abdominal development are rampant. Much of this distortion, especially among ‘experts,’ comes from completely misunderstanding the vital role of the hip flexors in controlling and motivating athletic movement and specifically missing the complex interrelationship between the hip flexors and the abdominal muscles. The immediate result of this misunderstanding is the belief that hip flexion exercises are avoided or maligned by most trainers. This is where the ‘crunch’ came from. We put ‘crunch’ into Google and got 990,000 hits compared to 138,000 for ‘sit-up’; this largely reflects the sit-up’s demise and crunch’s dominance. While the crunch is a good exercise, the idea that it is somehow safer or superior to the sit-up is laughable.”
—Greg Glassman, 2003
Comments on The Elbow-Up
This sit-up variation allows for full task accomplishment for those who cannot yet execute the sit-up in standard fashion. The athlete in this video pushes off of one foot, rolling to the side in order to get to his elbow. The full sequence takes him from side, to elbow, to hand, and then finishes to the seated position using both hands to reach 90 degrees at the hip. In this clip, the process is reversed in order to get back to the ground, but another option is to simply lean straight back , performing the sit-up 'negative'.
So 2 great methods:
1. back on the floor - side - elbow - hand - other hand - seated - hand - elbow - side - back to the floor (this clip)
or
2. back on the floor - side - elbow - hand - other hand -seated - lean straight back to the floor
The Elbow-Up
1