Do sit ups work?

[NoIsACompleteAnswerSometimes]

Hi all. I've always been slim but after the 3M's (marriage, middle age, menopause) I ended up putting on over a stone and going to 2 dress sizes.
I've taken action and am now back to roughly where I was weight wise and size wise.
I've always carried any excess weight on my tummy and thighs. At one stage,I could rest my cup on my stomach when i was sitting down! That's gone now mostly, but there's still a bit of a "mum tum ". When I had my twins many years ago, sit ups were the thing i used to get back to my pre- baby shape.
I've read different things re the effectiveness of sit ups, (Google wasn't a thing all those years ago, just got on with it then!) so anyone got any success stories please? Thanks.

Sit ups will help tone one set of muscles but overall won't do much. You need to do full ab workouts including crunches, let raises etc to tone all the ab muscles. This will only work on the existing muscle and won't help you lose stomach fat. A low/no sugar/carb diet is the only way to do that. The core and ab exercises are definitely worth doing but sit ups alone won't give you the results you need.

Thank you, thought that was going to be the answer! The trouble is if I lose more weight it doesn't shift from my stomach or legs, more so from my face and boobs, and my boobs are small enough as it is!

I do eat quite healthily, but i do eat large portions, always have done. Before I had the children (many years ago!) I weighed 7 1/2 stone dripping wet, and ate everything. For context, I'm now about 8 stone 10/12 lbs mostly, 5 foot 6/7 ish. I'm definitely at the low end of the BMI chart; again, that wasn't in use as such all those years ago. I was just classed as skinny!
My daughters are also on the slim side but with much bigger boobs ( so unfair) so I do think genetics plays a part.
I cut down on potatoes when I lost the stone, I only eat bread about twice a week and then not much, so I think i need to look at my sugar intake. That's where the issue lies, I am a bit of a biscuit/ chocolate fiend but on the plus side I don't drink alcohol.

Unfortunately you can’t target the area you want to lose the weight from. It goes from the areas on your body which have less then tends to go from the tougher areas. You can target muscle in workouts but not the area the weight will drop from. A clean diet is highly recommended alongside exercise to reduce stomach and thigh weight. They say it’s now a 20:80 split so exercise 20 and food 80. Squats are good for your core because you need it to help with the movements etc. If you go on YouTube there are lots of gym you tubers who talk about what exercises work best !

Thank you. Hmmmmmm, slight mum tum or cut out the biscuits appears to be the main choices! I do walk everywhere and swim once a week if I get chance, and I do a physical job. I'll have a think of how to cut down on the sugar, no point getting advice and not listening. I know not eating biscuits and chocolate is the answer but I also know I'll find it hard to stop doing that, no point denying that. Perhaps i can have a couple of sugar free days a week to start with?

Looking a certain way/having an "ideal" body isn't the rent you have to pay to take up space in this world. If you're generally healthy, it doesn't really matter. Maybe just start with having two biscuits instead of five, or whatever. More because sugar messes with your moods and your energy levels than because it's potentially responsible for what you think is a too big tummy. You grew two babies in there at the same time and this body has carried you through years and years of experience and good memories - be kind to it!

(But if you want to get it more exercise, although you're already doing a fair amount, Jessicasmithtv on YouTube has some great ab and core workouts and she's really positive and encouraging)

Thank you argumentative. That's how i lost the stone in the first place, 1 biscuit instead of 2, 1 less potato etc. I actually grew 3 babies, just the last 2 were both together!
I'm lucky in the fact that I'm genetically pre disposed to be on the slim side, so I'm grateful for that. Just want a flatter stomach!

With no sugar/ low sugar, does the sugar in fruit count? If i fancy a snack i usually head to the fruit bowl first.

Yep - 'fraid so!

Damn! Lol

You can buy sugar free biscuits and chocolate, it's not readily available but more supermarkets are getting on board

Fruit is a great snack!

Cutting back on sweets / biscuits / sugar and 'junky' food is a great start. I'd keep the fruit and see how you go.

My PT told me that the best core exercises (ie for abs, but for the whole of your torso) are body weight and the weight-bearing squats, and lat pull ups/chin ups. I'm working on all of those - I use a assisted pull up machine at the gym, and have got it down to sets of 8 with a 35kg assist, sets of 3-5 with a 30kg assist, and I manage 1 rep with a 25kg assist.

Specific abdominal exercises will help with tone & flexibility, but you can't target for weight loss in that way. And you need to do ab exercises safely & carefully - I cringe at seeing some of the things people do thinking they're toning abs.

Personally, I think crunches are the worst - much better to do dance/Pilates inspired very slow torso roll ups, with your feet planted firmly on the floor, knees to ceiling, and then roll up, really thinking of
navel to backbone
peeling each vertebra off the floor

Then - even more important! slowly roll back down, carefully placing each vertebra on the floor, and thinking about lengthening the spine on the floor, and keeping pelvis still and engaged, navel to backbone.

Try a few - if you do them properly, they are tough.

Oh, and breathe! breathe out as you roll up, breathe in at the top, and breathe out as you roll down

I will always recommend pilates for core strength. It’s a slow burn, and takes times but I am stronger in my body now than I ever have been after going to mat classes for 5 years. (And I had a caesarian 2.5 years ago!)

Planking, planking, planking!

Maybe it's just me, but I don't find planking particularly useful. I can plank for 60 seconds or so (probably longer but I get bored), on forearms or fully extended arms, so I can do it.

But I can feel that my body is not responding as well or feeling as good as in moving work on abdominals - slow roll ups, the PIlates 100s and so on. I also do a bit of ballet, and that uses core muscles all the time in a very functional, use-oriented movement way. Which I think is far more useful. Or think of the full-arm plank you do in a sun salutation in yoga - far more beneficial, because you move through the position. It's functional.

My problem with planking is that there's a tendency for people to hunch shoulders, and get their neck alignment wrong. But basically I don't find such a static position particularly useful. If I'm doing a plank in a Pilates class, I try to keep my back as a whole moving - by rocking backwards & forwards from my toes, or thinking consciously of shoulders back & down, neck elongated.

I think you need to make sure you have a good posture In a plank, it’s very easy to have your bum stuck up a bit and tha makes it easier. I can definitely feel it in my rectus abdominus when planking and PT friend tells me that’s the muscle which draws your stomach in. He gets me doing walking/hover planks as well and planks with toe taps out to the side, etc for a bit more work.

I much prefer the walking plank, or the plank with a toe tap - somehow, the movement makes it easier & more obvious to keep the lower abdominals engaged.

youtube the following exercises:
pancake sit ups
straight leg sit ups
Russian Twists
Feather Kicks
plank
push ups
and if you have acess to a bar for pull ups:
pull ups
toe-to-bar (just start with one side at a time)

I’m like you OP (including twins) and joined a gym a couple of years back, thinking that I could work my abs back to life now I’d had my babies.

I also have a really annoying lower back injury from my twin delivery that everyone said would benefit from strengthening my core.

I gave it my all, I really did - weights, personal trainer, Pilates, yoga plus an hour cardio stuff that was called ‘warm up’ or ‘cool down’.

I walk everywhere, have a physically active life and we eat very cleanly.
While I lost weight and was a little less wobbly on my stomach, all the extra faff and cost made not much difference to my post DC tummy and not a jot to my back pain.

Cancelled the gym membership this summer. I stopped going 6 months ago.

Merrily wearing a bikini (I looked just as good as before the gym) on holiday and playing with the DC and DH.
I don’t look like I did in my twenties but then, why the fuck should I

My takeaway is that you can see improvements if you have a sedentary lifestyle and a shit diet or you have an active lifestyle, good diet and the time to work out really hard every other day.

I’d honestly rather have a good relationships with the people I love and look slightly raddled in a bikini

Sleight I just wear swimming shorts and a tankini top!
On the plus side, my mum made me some fancy denim shorts when i was about 12/13, and i know i was wearing them at 14. Every year I get them out, try them on, tuck my stomach in and do them up. I might not be able to breathe, eat or sit down comfortably but I can still get into them ( just!). Must do my annual try- on soon.