Should I do sit-ups?

Sit-ups seem to be the go-to exercise when someone wants to ‘get abs’ or lose some weight from around the middle!
Recent research however has led sit-ups to fall out of favour with many members of the health and fitness industry over concerns they may be doing more harm than good.
The US Army are actually trialling a revamped physical fitness test and have eliminated sit-ups from the programme after a study of 1500 army soldiers found 56% of injuries associated with their previous testing programme were attributed to sit-up exercises¹.
As a physiotherapist I am often asked if sit-ups are a worthwhile exercise to do.  Let’s explore that question..