As with most exercises there are many modifications that can be made to a sit-up. But for now, in this Ten Minute Workout this is a basic sit-up. Probably would be called more of a crunch than a sit up, but YOU can put the amount of movement in it that you want.
Lie on the floor on your back. Knees up, feet on the floor, slight tilt of the pelvis toward your chest. Keeping an imaginary apple or orange under your chin lift your head and shoulders off the ground towards your knees. The purpose of the imaginary fruit is to keep you from collapsing your chin to your chest, especially if you are using the hands-supporting-head/neck method. With that form sometimes there is a tendency to actually push the head to the chest. But the idea is to keep space between the chin and chest and just lift your head, shoulders, and upper chest upwards and towards your knees. Squeeze your abdominal muscles on the lift and at the top. Pause for a second. Allow the movement to be smooth and fluid. If you find yourself jerking up or using momentum to do the movement, try LESS movement or fewer reps. (Yes, yes, the idea is ten of ten in ten, but it is ok to learn a move. It’s a journey we are on.)
This is one of the exercises that most of us are familiar with. This is an exercise most of us have done in our life. So this is one that is easy to play with and modify. So many ways to do it.
People might not realize or even notice but we do sit ups and or abdominal work often in Nia. But the way we do them is as a dance so I think people don’t realize what we are doing is even an abdominal exercise until the next day when they have that nice feeling of a muscle that had some attention paid to it. Nia makes it more like play than work.
Ok . . . . comment away . . . . . . 😉
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