Band-Resisted Sit-Up
Trains the Abs.
- Equipment
- A resistance band
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Anchor a band low behind you and lie on your back with your knees bent, feet flat.
- Hold the band with both hands at your chest so it pulls you backward.
- Brace your stomach and set the lower back gently down.
- Curl your spine up one vertebra at a time into a full sit-up, against the band's pull.
- Stop where the trunk stops flexing rather than hinging further at the hips.
- Lower under control against the band, which pulls hardest at the top.
Common mistakes
- Hinging straight up from the hips with a flat back. That is a hip flexor exercise the abdominals hold position for; curling the spine first is what makes it a sit-up.
- Anchoring the band where it can slip. A band released while it is stretched across your chest travels toward your face.
- Expecting the band's curve to match a plate. A band is lightest lying down and heaviest sitting up, which loads the top of a sit-up rather than the bottom.
- Letting the band snap you back down. The lowering half is where the tension remains, and it is the part most often given away.