"In the past decade, every branch of the U.S. military has begun to phase out sit-ups and crunches from their required testing and training regimens, or else they have made them optional, alongside more orthopedically sound maneuvers such as the plank. Spokespeople for the Army and the Marines confirmed to me that these decisions in their branches were made in part to avoid the high rates of lower-back injury found among troops training for speed sit-up and crunch tests."
>these decisions in their branches were made in part to avoid the high rates of lower-back injury found among troops training for speed sit-up and crunch tests."
And yet if you are in the USAF, the GP's will prescribe 500mg-1g of nicotinic acid and ibuprofen for lower back problems, to be taken when working out in the gym.
The nicotinic acid on an empty stomach spikes your growth hormone well above peaks seen during puberty, and believe it or not, can have you mobile and working doing hard exercise and lifting within 30mins, in fact you dont need the ibuprofen, just the nicotinic acid when the flush strikes.
The only downside with doing nicotinic acid long term is it will increase the chance of osteomalacia, aka putty bones, where you can push your finger into your bones and leave an indent in the bone, like pushing your finger into fresh putty around a window. Its not nice and it will deform your bones unless you take appropriate action namely changes to your diet to increase you vit k and omega 3 intake.
The pain killing effect of nicotinic acid comes from the release of calcium which binds to the body's own catecholamines because calcium binding to the catecholamines amplifies their effect. Its probably also explains those video's of people lifting weights when their bones snap and break, you dont feel osteomalacia until its too late.
Nicotinic acid can also harm the liver so appropriate dietary changes need to be made to compensate for taking it, even though it can be prescribed as a statin, and was the first drug used in the US for chemo purposes, decades ago.
An awful lot of military live on legal painkillers. They have to, since they can't just quit & rest when they get sore. The medics hand out Tylenol and Advil like candy.
Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not: I also heard of kidney stones among vets. This is nothing like a scientific study; just anecdotal.
