Bored of doing sit-ups? Why not mix things up with the GHD sit-up — an intense variation of the well-known abdominal exercise? The GHD sit-up stands for Glute Ham Developer and is actually a piece of gym equipment on which someone can do a sit-up, despite the fact that, as the name suggests, the GHD focuses on lower body muscles. To find out more, I challenged myself to do 15 GHD sit-ups every day for a week. There are other exercises that can be done on a GHD but, for the purpose of this experiment, I was focusing solely on sit-ups.
Yes, it might look a little odd, but the GHD sit-up is great for improving core strength, as well as core stability and hip mobility. Essentially, a GHD sit-up really requires a full range of motion as you lean back all the way on the machine before really recruiting the core muscles to drive yourself back up. Plus, the hip flexors (of which mine are incredibly tight) are firing up to help power the torso back to a sitting motion without any motion from the lower body. From my PT perspective, hip mobility is vital for avoiding lower back pain, plus it can help with general movement, from walking and running through to powerful gym-based exercises.
