Yesterday I was reading in Running Times magazine about how you should focus on pushups instead of situps to strengthen your core. Their rationale was that the stress put on the spine by an excessive number of situps can cause permanent damage and contribute to herniated discs. Scary thought. Pushups are supposed to be easier on your back because all the bending is done at your more flexible arm and shoulder joints. While clearly your arms are doing a lot of the work, the abs end up being exercised as well if you maintain good form with a straight back and tight stomach.
So I'm thinking of reversing my training plan of no pushups/only situps that I've Bern following the last 5 months. If only as an experiment, I'd like to see what happens if I cut out my situps and the potential for spinal injury they might (or might not) lead to, and focus on 100 pushups a day.
My goal is to lessen stress on my already running compressed spine but maintain core strength.
Most of my exercise comes from straight running but it will still be interesting to see what affects this tweak has.
Originally I had dropped pushups from the regimen after I noticed that very few marathoners had large arms. But this observation may have been flawed. I have recently noticed quite a few strong distance runners with very developed shoulders and upper arms, especially the deltoid/tricep area. Examples include Brian Sell, Ryan Webb, Dean Karnazes and just about every triathlete I've ever seen.
So for a number of reasons I'm back on the pushup bandwagon and giving up on the situps. I will make an effort to chart how this change affects my running.
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