Crunches vs Situps
Most of the people who are overweight find it the hardest to get the flab around their tummy removed to get back into shape. Two abdominal exercises that are recommended to get rid of fat around the belly are called the crunches and situps. Most people who are desirous of losing fat and build abdominal muscles or the proverbial six pack abs do not know the differences between crunches and situps and many even think to be the same. However, this is not true, and this article attempts to highlight the differences between these two different exercise sets meant to get rid of abdominal fat.
Crunches
Lie on a hard surface or a mat on your back and with your knees bent at 90 degrees and slightly apart with feet firmly on the floor. Try to raise your head and neck until you feel contractions in your abdominal muscles. Keep your hands on your chest. Your back always touches the floor and does not leave if for a moment while doing crunches. One can place his hands behind the neck to have some support in the beginning.
Situps
Situps are another great exercise for getting the abdomen into shape. A sit up is slightly more stressful than crunches. The initial pose of a person doing sit up is just as it is in the case of a crunch with feet on the floor and knees bent 90 degrees. Keep your arms on the ground pointing towards the feet. Now raise your shoulder and torso to try and make it touch your thighs. To complete a sit up, you need to go back to the starting position.
Crunches vs Situps
- During situps, the lower back of the person loses contact with the floor while it remains in contact with the floor during crunches
- Crunches are safe, easy and less stressful than situps that put a lot of strain on the lower back
- More calories get burnt while doing situps and thus they are included in the regime of those who want to lose weight fast
- While crunches target only abdominal muscles, situps target hip muscles in addition to abdominal muscles