Use a Sharpie, like this guy did:
What's an alternative to doing sit ups (working out your abs)?
Did you try crunches instead of sit-ups? On sit ups you have to rock up onto your lower back so that's why it hurts. Crunches just tense your abs but you just lift off shoulder blades. And there's also Leg lifts, planks, russian twists, up-up-down-down (planks while doing name on forearms), push-ups, oblique crunches that I can remember right now.
I guess you could you could pick things up and set them down while bending for a few hours.
Crunches, or cycle crunches. Too many sit ups are actually really bad for your back so, isn't that good news? I use Fitness Blender, their on youtube. Free, awesome workouts. Just look up, "ab workout fitness blender" and there you go!!
Sit-ups shouldn't be your go-to ab exercise — and not just because they're boring. If you're only doing sit-ups, you're only training one part of your abs, your rectus abdominis or "the six-pack muscles" that run from the bottom of your chest to your pubic bone.
But still, there are several core exercises that work the abdominal muscles to a much greater extent.
- Exercise 1: Front Planks.
- Exercise 2: Side Planks.
- Exercise 3: Ab Wheel Rollouts.
- Exercise 4: Pendulum / Windshield Wipers.
- Exercise 5: Lying Leg Raises.
- Exercise 6: Hanging Leg Raises.