Sit up's...some questions.
 

I am now doing alot of these every evening. I was wondering, are there any inherent risks to your back when perfroming them?

I think it must put a lot of strain on it,

Could anyone please advise?

If you're able to to declined crunches, do those.

Anyways, I normally cross my arms, palms on my shoulders, and i just bring my shoulder blades 1 inch of the ground. Basic crunch.

To try to iolate the lower abs a bit more, laying on your back and lifting your legs (reverse crunches) is fairly effective.

Thank you Mokle, I do believe this is a really good form of excercise, and i want to do it in the best possible way,

Thanks again,

You have to make sure that your abs are contracting so you can't just keep your back straight the whole time, it's going to have to curl up some. The role of the abs are to bring your rib cage to your pelvis, not your shoulders to your knees. So when you do your crunces make sure you are 'curling' your torso in order to bring your ribs down to your pelvis. Doing the standard sit-up in which you basically keep your back straight doesn't contract your abs, it mainly only works the hip flexors. And remember to train your abs last in a workout because they protect your lower back from injury, so if they're already tired and you do back extensions next you could end up injuring yourself.

Thank you shred head for the heads up,

heres some ab stuff off of www.mensfitness.com

http://www.mensfitness.com/fitness/43

they have a ton of exercies and information about dieting and just about everything dealing with mens health.. so if you have some time to read take a glance through their site.. it's helped me out a lot

use a swiss ball for sit-ups. much safer.