Hello
I am getting back into working out after being on hiatus. For the last two nights I have done 50 crunches.

Well, last night, after I had finished the crunches, I sat up and PAIN shot through my stomach!! INTENSE burning pain! I grabbed my stomach/chest and I could FEEL the muscles spasming underneath my hand. I gently rubbed the area until it stopped. When I would get one area under control, another area flared up! Finally, after 30 minutes it stopped.

PLEASE someone help me! I don't want to stop doing crunches (trust me my abs need it) But, I am scared of doing them and having the same pain. Has this happened to anyone else????

Hello. That happened to a friend of mine after restarting exercising. She just took a couple of Advil about 20 minutes before exercising - she did this for about a week. When she stopped taking the Advil, she had no more spasms. She just needed the antispasmodic action until her muscles got used to exercising again.

Hi!

My professional advice comes in 2 parts

1) Relax. It is probably nothing to worry about. You have simply jumped back in to exercising these muscles too hard too soon. Reduce the number you do to about 10 - 20 and build up to 50+ over a number of weeks and you will find the cramps won't hit. Also, keep breathing, slow and steady breaths. If you hold you breath you starve the muscles of oxygen and they will cramp!

2) As with all muscles the abs need a rest. All exercise guidelines recommend that you work a muscle every OTHER day as they need a day of rest to repair the deliberate damage a work out causes. By working them every day you deprive your body of the chance to reap the full benefit of the work you did. That is why good workouts tell you to do mostly cardio one day, alternating with mostly resistance the next.

I hope this helps, Stef