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Many sportspeople do sit-ups as part of a raft of exercises which aim to improve their core stability, but research from Thomas Nesser from Indiana State University suggests that improving your core stability doesn't necessarily result in better athletic performance.
很多运动人士将仰卧起坐作为锻炼的一种方式，来提高自己身体核心区的稳定性。但是印第安纳州立大学的托马斯·内赛尔的研究表明，核心区稳定性的提高不一定会让你在运动上有很好的表现。
Whether or not they provide you with precisely the physique or fitness you desire, could sit-ups bring unintended consequences such as back pain? Stuart McGill, professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Canada has been studying sit-ups for years and is convinced that the traditional crunch does indeed cause us harm.
不管仰卧起坐是否真的能助你实现你想要的体格或健身效果，它们有可能会带来如背部疼痛这样意想不到的后果吗？加拿大滑铁卢大学的生物力学脊柱教授斯图尔特·麦吉尔对仰卧起坐已经研究多年，深信这一传统的收腹运动确实会有损我们的身体。
He conducted dozens of studies in his spine biomechanics lab using the cadavers of pigs, repeatedly flexing their spines in a similar way as a person might when doing a sit-up, but for many, many hours at a time. When he examined the discs in the spine afterwards, he found that they had been squeezed to the point where they bulged. If the same thing happened in a human this would press on the nerves, causing back pain, and possibly even a herniated disc.
在脊椎生物力学实验室，他在猪身上已经进行过几十次的研究。通过模仿人做仰卧起坐时的姿势，他不断地弯曲猪的脊椎，一次长达数小时。随后，他检验猪的脊椎盘，发现弯曲时隆起的部位已经被挤压成尖状。如果同样的事情发生人身上，这将压迫到神经，造成背部疼痛，甚至可能是椎间盘突出。
Pigs were chosen for this experiment because their spines are more similar to human spines than those of many other animals, but of course critics of these studies point out, that there are still many differences between people and pigs. Also these studies involved thousands of continuous cycles of bending. Even when training hard, people take breaks between sets of crunches.
之所以将猪选为实验对象，是因为与其他动物相比，他们的脊椎与人类的脊椎相似度更高。当然，研究的反对者指出，人和猪之间仍有许多不同之处。此外，在研究过程中，对猪的脊椎进行弯曲的频次过多。而对于人来说，训练再刻苦，中间也会有休息。
Perhaps these results tell us what might happen at the extremes in the unlikely event that you were to do sit-ups for hour upon hour, but in real life it's clearly not the case that most people damage their discs most of the time when doing sets of 15 sit-ups. However, injuries can happen. Research published in 2005 on soldiers stationed at the US military's Fort Bragg attributed 56% of all the injuries sustained during the two-yearly Army Physical Fitness Test, to sit-ups.
也许这些研究结果告诉我们的是极端情况下的后果，就像你几乎不可能一小时接着一小时地一直做仰卧起坐。在现实生活中，大部分人一般只是做15组仰卧起坐。而即便如此，伤害还是有可能会发生。2005年对驻扎在布拉格堡的美军士兵的研究表明，在两年的陆军体能测试期中，56%的伤害归因于仰卧起坐。
Some people seem to be more prone to back problems caused by sit-ups than others. We might be fine doing 30 sit-ups a day for decades, but we might not and it's hard to know which group we fall into. It could come down to our genes. According to one paper, it's not wear-and-tear that causes most of the difficulties, but genetic factors, which account for three-quarters of the differences between the people who do get back problems and those who don't.
对于有些人来说，仰卧起坐似乎更容易产生腰背问题。反之，一些人每天都做30个仰卧起坐，坚持了几十年，却没有任何异样。我们可能不知道也很难知道我们是属于哪一类人。这可能源于我们的基因。根据一篇文章指出，大部分的问题并非源于不断的摩擦和撕裂，而是遗传因素。人之所以有或没有背部问题，75%是因为遗传的关系。
So sit-ups might lead to back pain, but only in some people. It's a good excuse not to do them. But if you want to crunch those abs, is there a way of limiting the risk? Professor Stuart McGill recommends sliding your hands under your lower back to stop it flattening against the floor. This minimises the stress on your back.
所以，对一部分人来说，仰卧起坐可能导致背部疼痛。这是一个不做仰卧起坐的很好的借口。但是，若想要平坦的腹肌，有没有一种风险更低的方式?斯图尔特·麦吉尔教授建议，将双手滑动到下背部，避免下背部直接接触地板。这将最大限度地减少背部压力。
