maratoolCrunches
How to do the crunches
- This is the most common abdominal exercise and possibly the most often improperly performed. Here is how to perform it correctly.
- Lie on your back with your feet up on a bench and your knees bent at a 90 degree angle.
- Place your hands across your chest or on either side of your head (over your ears).
- Raise your head, shoulders and chest off the floor and towards your knees, crunching your abs.
- Hold the position for a moment and then lower to the starting position.
- Note: Keep your hips straight and your lower back against the floor during this exercise.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the rectus abdominis and the obliques, which flex the trunk forward and resist it being pulled into extension or twisted out of line.
Every exercise for:Abdominals
How this movement works
One joint changes angle and the resistance travels toward you along a single arc. Nothing is positioned to help, so tension stays where you aimed it and the usable load drops sharply against a multi-joint pull for the same muscle. Protect the range of motion; buying weight by shortening the arc defeats the point.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the abdominals too, using equipment this one does not:
- Crunches with Legs on Stability Ballexercise ball
- Double Kettlebell Windmillkettlebell
- Kneeling Cable Crunch With Alternating Oblique Twistscable
- Landmine 180'sbarbell
- Medicine Ball Full Twistmedicine ball
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 97 abdominals exercises in this database, 69 are listed at beginner level.
Illustration: Everkinetic — CC BY-SA 4.0 — license. Modified versions are shared under the same license. Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.