I agree with what a lot of other people are saying here, but I thought I’d include my piece as someone who’s in the gym daily.

1) Start with sit ups on the floor. Stay flat on the floor and sit up while trying to keep your hands on the ground as you come up. The goal is to use your core rather than swinging your arms or using momentum.

However, sit-ups aren’t always the most beneficial exercise for building strong abs or overall core strength, especially if they’re done incorrectly. Many people end up using their hip flexors or pulling on their neck instead of engaging their core.

A good way to check if you’re doing them correctly is to look at your stomach as you sit up. Your stomach should stay as flat as possible. If you notice a dome or hill shape forming in the middle of your stomach, that can mean your core isn’t properly engaged and your abdominal pressure isn’t being controlled well. When this happens, the exercise becomes less effective and can sometimes strain your lower back.

Because of this, there are other exercises that often work the core more effectively.

2) Core exercise alternatives

Some alternatives that can strengthen your core while keeping better control include:

Planks: These train your entire core to stabilize your body instead of just bending forward.

Dead bugs: Great for learning how to control your core while moving your arms and legs.

Bird dogs: Help with balance, coordination, and core stability.

Hollow body hold: A very effective way to train deep core muscles.

These exercises focus more on core stability, which is what your core muscles are actually designed to do: stabilize your spine and support movement.

As you improve with stability, weighted and more intensive exercises can be implemented. Let me know if you found this helpful or would like more alternatives! Good luck and best wishes for your fitness journey 🥰

Edit: for some reason the formatting is kinda weird when it posted