Variations: If these are too difficult, place your legs on the ground with a slight bend at the knees and do 3 sets of 25. If these are too difficult, elevate your legs again on the chair or bench and do “crunchies.” Simply raise your head so that your chin touches your chest and reach your hands to the sky. Do 3 sets of these 25 times, each time making sure you feel contractions in your abdominal muscles.

Safety hint: Don’t lock your hands behind your head. This may pull your head too far forward and damage your spine. If, after doing the 3 sets of 25 crunchies, you find that you can’t do exercise 2, don’t do it. Keep doing the crunchies 3 times a week until you can do the elevated leg sit-ups. Then do them until you can do exercises 1 and 2 without back pain or exhaustion. In addition, with any of these exercises, if you should feel back pain, stop the exercise and talk with someone about the back pain.