Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1977 docudrama, Pumping Iron, may be approaching age 50, but the teachings that came out of the bodybuilding classic are still inspiring gym goers to this day. So, when the Arnold Sports Festival Instagram account recently unearthed a clip of the ‘Austrian Oak’ repping Roman Chair Situps during filming, we stat down, took notice, and crunched out some of these bad boys. Here’s how you can too.
“During my bodybuilding heyday, I was known for a few body parts — my chest, my biceps, my back and even my calves. However, it was my abdominals to which I paid the most attention,” explained the Olympia icon in a previous commentary for FLEX. “I knew then, as I do now, that you could have the biggest arms, the broadest shoulders and the most cut thighs, but if you have poor abdominal development, you’ll look simply overgrown rather than Herculean.
What Are Roman Chair Situps?
Romain Chair Situps target your iliopsoas muscles (psoas major and iliacus) that are connected to the hips and lower torso. While the iliopsoas are located around the lower back, this exercise forces the iliopsoas to draw upon other body parts to execute the Romania Chair Situp, and this process is all stabilized by the rectus abdominis (your abs) and the obliques (to the side of the stomach).
How To Execute The Roman Chair Situps
- Sit on a bench and place your feet under a weighted barbell to anchor yourself into position
- Lean your upper-body back, until hips are almost fully extended
- Return forward until your upper-body is upright
Adaptations: To experiment with the difficulty of this move, try it with your hands in different positions such as around the waste or on the head. Perform 2 sets of 20 reps. Roman Chair Situps are one of four major ab exercises that Arnold would make part of his staple. To find out more from the man himself check out this story from our own archives here!