We know that there are two things that are not good for the health of your back (even if you are doing these exercises to improve your core.) The first is prolonged flexion. This includes sitting for long periods and being bent in flexed postures for long periods of time. A good analogy would be like if you took a metal rod and bent it for a long time. You would find that the longer it bends, the more quickly it will deform and will likely break at some point. This can also happen to your back (over a very long period of time).
The second thing that is not good for the health of your back is repetitive flexion. This is what is commonly seen at the gym. In order, from bad to worst, here are some repetitive flexion exercises at the gym that will increase the chance of disc injury:
1. Sit ups
In my opinion, there is no safe way to do sit ups (nor is there a need to.) Sits ups are the perfect example of repetitive flexion. Its like taking a metal rod and repetitively bending it back and forth. Sooner or later, you will end up with a weak spot and it will break.
2. The Weighted Sit up Machine
This one is a beauty! Not only are you doing repetitive flexion, but you are also compressing the spine while you do it.
3. The Leg Press Machine
To be honest, I've seen someone injure their disc on four separate occasions by doing extremely heavy weight. Why did they injure their disc? As they lower the weight, their knees come towards their chest. As that happens, you flex your lumbar spine. Now you have to use a tremendous amount of force to move the weight back to its starting position. Its usually at this point that the person may feel a "pop" and a tremendous amount of pain.
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