You've see the ads on late night TV, and in magazines, selling machines to shape your waist line... well, here's my advice; don't buy them, save your money... as I will show you an excellent way of doing sit-up's that get excellent results quickly, and also, my sit-up technique takes the stress of doing sit-up's off your lower back.

One of the biggest problems of doing sit-up's is the stress that occurs to your lower back... in fact, the stress that quickly develops on your lower back is usually enough to quickly discourage just about anyone from doing a regular sit-up routine... well, your in luck... I'm going to show you a sit-up system I've developed that removes that stress and delivers excellent results quickly.

Usually when you think of a sit-up, you envision raising your upper torso and head upwards towards the top of your knees, then lowering your upper torso and head back to the floor and repeating those steps... in my technique, your back, torso, and head stay flat on the floor, and your knees/feet are raised towards your torso... kind of like what some fitness people call a crunch, but my system is different than a crunch.

If you haven't done sit-ups for sometime, or you have a weak stomach... you'll want to start with Phase 1 exercises for the first 1 or 2 weeks... to build your strength... and then progress to Phase 2, and then Phase 3 exercises...

Phase 1 Sit Up's
Phase 1 Sit Up's: This phase is primarily for getting your body use to this exercise (strengthening your stomach)... depending on your abdominal strength, you may want to do the phase 1 sit ups over a period from anywhere between 1 or 2 days to up to as long as a couple of weeks... maybe longer if your haven't exercised for a long, long time... and while you may only be able to do a couple at a time, you want to work your way up to 10 at a time for 3 sets per work out... once you can do 10 reps for 3 sets per workout... then move to Phase 2...
(1) Lay down on the flat on the floor, face-up... anchor your upper body to the floor with a dumbbell... raising your feet a couple inches off the floor.	(2) While keeping your feet off the floor... move your feet towards your bum.	(3) Pull your feet towards your bum, until your knees point straight up, and your feet are almost touching the back of your legs.	(4) While keeping your feet off the floor... extend your feet out back to position #1.

Phase 2 Sit Up's
Phase 2 Sit Up's: This phase is where you can really start toning your waist line. The Phase 2 sit-ups really concentrate the exercise to your stomach muscles. Once you start into the Phase 2 sit-up's, it'll only take a couple weeks to really start noticing the strength of your abdominals muscles increase and firm up...
(1) Laying down on the floor, anchoring your upper body to the floor with a dumbbell, with your knee's facing straight up and your feet almost touching the back of your legs... pull your knees towards your face... while keep your back flat on the floor.	(2) Really concentrate on your abdominal muscles... use only your abdominal muscles to pull you knees towards your face and the ceiling.	(3) While pulling your knees towards your face/ceiling... try to keep your feet as close as you can to the back of your legs... swinging your feet as little as possible... in this picture, the feet have been swung forward to much.	(4) Extend your feet/legs back to position #1... and repeat over for 3 sets of 10 reps.. rest for between 2 - 5 minutes between each set.
These 2 pictures below show Phase 2-2 and 2-3... showing how you want to lift your bum by contracting your stomach muscles... this really focuses the exercise on your stomach muscles... while keeping stress normally associated with sit-up's off your lower back...

Phase 3 Sit Up's
Phase 3 Sit Up's: This Phase is essentially the same as Phase 2 sit-ups, expect they are done with your legs hung over at a slight angle... which add extra strength and tone to your abdominal region, specifically the Oblique muscles...
Phase 3 sit ups are done the same way as Phase 2 Sit up's... except these are done with your legs hung over to your side at a slight angle.