Now that we are familiar with the anatomy of our abdominal muscles, we can talk with some understanding about how exercise can strengthen our muscles and make us healthier and feel better.
Many years ago sit-ups were the way people exercise their abdominal muscles. These are done by lying down with the back flat on the floor. Usually the knees are kept bent so to reduce stress on the muscles of the back and spine. Then the upper and lower vertebrae are lifted off the floor until everything above the buttocks is elevated off the floor. However, this exercise was found to be risky because of the high compressive load on the lumbar or lower spine. Nowadays, for the most part, sit-ups have been replaced by the “curl-up”, or crunch exercise.
