Stomach muscles / core

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I know that I have muscles in there, they stop me from folding over and allow me to sit upright, but that seems to be the extent of it.

i went to try out an exercise class a couple of weeks ago that required sit up, and I couldn’t even do 1 . My body seems completely incapable of lifting my upper half off of the floor from a laying on back position.

So how do I improve this, what do I do to strengthen these muscles enough to start being able to do sit ups and then build from there to improve overall core strength?

Try thinking about rolling your spine up and down off the floor. Start by sitting with feet your hip width apart and flat on the floor, and knees pointing to ceiling.

Take a deep breath in, then think about contracting your lower abs as you control your breath out. Try to imagine each vertebra rolling onto the floor. Use your hands to help support you if you need to.

When you get to the floor, take a few breaths, then start to roll your spine up - start with a breath in, thenas you roll up breathe out. Start by pressing lower spine into the floor, then tuck your chin and start to roll your spine up off the floor from the top. Use your hands if you need to.

Take it slowly, with conscious use of spine & abs. Go as slowly as possible on the way down - doing the 'negative' really slowly can help strengthen muscles.

Planks.

There's a great 30 day challenge app I use. I don't use it every day, maybe 4 times a week just dip in and out of it.

Sit ups are one of those exercises it's really easy to do wrong, strain your back, over use your hip flexors etc and not target the areas you want to target.

I can do sit ups now after all this planking but your core is much more than the muscles you use for sit ups. Start doing planks and your whole posture will improve.

You could try first with resistance bands around the bottom of your feet and using them to help you move from lying to sitting.

It's important to have good form in planks. I see too many people hunching their shoulders just to stay in position for a minute or whatever. As you do the plank, keep your body active. THink about pulling the shoulder blades down your back and drawing your shoulders away from your chin, for example.

If you keep doing the classes, and maybe add a core class or Pilates - you start to build core strength surprisingly quickly. Honest.

Thanks all, will have a good read through your suggestions and also check with my gym to see if they do a super basic intro class for people who have really let themselves go 😂

I second the Pilates suggestion. They tend to have different versions of the same exercise for beginners to advanced. It sounds like you will need to start from beginner level and build up. But that’s the same with any exercise really! Core also includes your back and strengthening that at the same time as your abs is really important.

I wouldn't focus on sit ups, there are better exercises.

I second Pilates. Try to find a good class and explain that you are a beginner. Done regularly, that will teach you really good form and strengthen all of your core (and other muscle groups), and help you understand what is what.

And then you can transfer that to other classes but get the most out f them - if everyone else is banging out umpteen bad sit ups in a fast class, you quietly do fewer and do them really well for example.

I would also recommend Pilates as well , for a starter core exercise at home the Pilates 100 is really effective and you can modify your leg position to give varying levels of difficulty, the key thing is to be able to keep your lower back flat on the floor

Have signed up for a Stretch & core class next Tuesday at the Leisure Centre which is a beginners Pilates class so will give that a go and hopefully will be able to work it into a regular weekly schedule. They don’t have any other classes that fit around work so will take a look at the other centres around the city to see if I can add at least one more a week so I have 2 sessions a week with people who know what they’re doing to guide me.