Often seen in Crossfit workouts, butterfly sit-ups offer a new approach to regular sit-ups and crunches. So, when I was asked to do 50 butterfly push-ups a day, I jumped at the chance. After all, why wouldn’t I want to add a new move to my core set of exercises?
The butterfly sit-up is a great exercise for working the core muscles, especially the rectus abdominis muscles — also known as the six-pack muscles, and the transverse abdominals, which are the deepest muscles of your midsection. The lower back is also activated in this exercise. to.
Doing 50 sit-ups a day seemed like easy feat; After all, how difficult is that? Read on to find out what happened when I accepted the challenge.
How to do butterfly sit-ups
The butterfly exercise is similar to a regular sit-up, except for a few leg position differences. As with all AB exercises, form is important, so here’s how to do the butterfly sit-up correctly:
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Sit on the floor with the soles of your feet touching and your knees bent, knees down toward the floor. Your legs should almost form a diamond or butterfly shape.
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Keeping your feet on the floor, lie down, arms extended above your head.
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Tuck your chin into your chest, and use your core muscles to dip your body up simultaneously with your arms up and tapping the floor at the sides of your feet.
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Keeping your core engaged, lower back to the floor. That’s one rep.
When doing butterfly squats, try to move slowly and not use momentum to move the body — this often means you’re using other muscles, when ideally, your core muscles should be doing most of the work.
I did 50 butterfly sit-ups a day for a week – here’s what happened
My back was in bits
For the first few days of this challenge, even though my abs were excited, my back was paying the price as well. I thought I had a fairly strong back, however, the repetitive motion of these sit-ups hurt me a bit. If you have back pain, I’ll do butterfly sit-ups, or break them into sets of maybe 10, with a break in between.
It is easy to lose shape
Unless you have a lot of time on your hands, and you’re willing to keep pausing to reset and giving your abs a few moments’ rest, it’s hard to maintain decent form as you work your way through 50 butterfly exercises. . I noticed my feet were lifting off the ground, my legs kept flexing, and I dreaded thinking what kind of shape my spine was making.
Regular sit-ups are a much easier option, and if you’re a beginner, as a personal trainer, I’d recommend sticking with these crunches or trying the butterfly exercise, where you don’t lift your entire torso into a seated-up stance. Here’s more on how to do sit-ups.
It’s hard to keep your feet on the ground
After about 20 reps, I noticed my feet were lifting off the ground and I ended up putting more pressure on my back and neck. In hindsight, I could have done it with the help of a friend to hold my feet on the ground.
My core muscles were on fire
Butterfly sit-ups are a great exercise when it comes to toning your core muscles. I felt my six-pack muscles scream as I moved my body from the floor to sitting, and back continuously. Plus, I could feel my deep core muscles stabilizing my body on the way back down. Thrown in a mix of other exercises like side planks, V-lifts, leg raises, and planks, then these butterfly exercises can make for a great abs workout.
Did you notice any changes in my torso after doing this for a week? Well, no, but I will likely need to do them for a longer period of time to see results. In addition, it is important not to forget that if you have a layer of fat over the abdominal muscles, you must first move in order for the lower abdominal muscles to appear. Burning the fat above your abs requires a calorie deficit. In other words, burn more than you consume. As the saying goes: “Abs are made in the kitchen.” Here more about How do you calculate body fat percentage and why does it matter.
Do I recommend the 50 butterflies a day challenge?
Overall, I can see the benefits of butterfly pushups, and yes they do work my abs, but would I ever do it again? of course not. The pressure on my back wasn’t pleasant and there are a plethora of other abs based exercises that can be done that don’t put as much pressure on my spine.
Of course, doing a few reps of sit-ups as part of a broader abs workout isn’t likely to be taxing, so this isn’t a move to skip entirely. This challenge was a reminder, however, that doing the same exercise day in and day out is not good for the body. As an important reminder, if you feel pain during a workout, always stop, as it’s not worth it to exacerbate any muscle pain.
On the plus side, my muscles definitely took a beating, so this exercise is definitely one to add to your workouts if you can master and maintain form.
