Mark OttobreFounder, Enterprise Fitness · Results Driven Coaching

How To Do The Stu McGill Sit Up

5 Aug 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:07

This content was created by Mark Ottobre. This content was uploaded by Mark Ottobre. This is a YouTube exercise tutorial titled "How To Do The Stu McGill Sit Up" (created 2026-08-05T05:00:02+00:00). It contains an instructional monologue by Mark Ottobre demonstrating the Stu McGill sit-up for trunk stability. He explains setup (one leg up/one leg down to stabilize the pelvis), cues to draw the belly button to the spine, keep the lower back touching the floor, avoid coming up high, imagine a thin piece of paper sliding under the head, brace the core (hold ~10 seconds), and a tip to place the tongue on the roof of the mouth if neck pain occurs. The content is a single-speaker fitness demonstration focused on core stabilization.

Chapters

This is a Stu McGill sit-up. So when you're doing a Stu McGill sit-up, you're going to sit on the floor like this. You can bring one leg straight down, one leg up. The reason why we do this is to stabilize the pelvis. The next thing we're going to do is we're lying flat, we want to draw our belly button into our spine. So you're flexing up, this is about trunk stability. Then you can use your hands to feel a little bit so you can feel your lower back pushing against the floor, drawing that belly button down. Then one of the mistakes people make is they come up really, really high with the Stu McGill sit-up. You don't need to do that. What you want to do is you want to learn to stabilize. So the way I like to explain it to my clients is imagine a thin piece of paper is just going to slide underneath your head, right? That's the level of trunk stability. It's almost like you've got a bar on your back. You want to teach people how to brace their core. It's not a sit-up, it's a brace. And then we release. So We usually want to hold these for about 10 seconds. You want to squeeze really, really, really hard and relax. That's your Stuhlmegel sit-up. If you do feel any neck pain, try putting your tongue on the roof of your mouth.