This entry was posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2007 at 6:49 pm and is filed under Abs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
What is it for?This exercise works the abdominals (the stomach muscles – Beeble). It concentrates on the upper portion of the rectus abdominus (the 6 pack – Beeble) although it does work the whole stomach. This exercise will firm your stomach but will not necessarily make it flat. It all depends on how much body fat you have above the muscle. Treat the body as a whole and you will get the best results for your body. That means a good all over body workout.
Technique
All right, so we are starting with a fairly basic exercise although, amazingly, it is still possible to get this wrong. Lie on your back with your legs raised, knees bent and feet flat on the ground. This position is good for the beginner as it puts the pelvis and therefore the spine into a neutral position (your back’s natural position – Beeble). Now place your hands on your thighs with your arms straight. All the movement must come from your stomach and you activate your stomach and slide your hands up your thighs towards the knees. Everyone’s body proportions are different so go as far as you can so that your shoulder blades are off the ground and this should mean you can touch your knees. If you can’t don’t worry, it will come with time, just go as far as your stomach will take you.
You may find during the movement that you will get neck ache which can be quite irritating. This is part of the process unfortunately and will improve with time. To help avoid it concentrate on a spot on the ceiling and focus on it throughout the movement. This will limit your head movement and reduce the stress placed on the neck. Our necks are used to carrying our heads with pressure going down through the spine. The crunch takes the pressure from front to back which your body won’t have practised. Give it time but if you feel pain at all stop immediately and reduce the amount you are doing to just before the neck hurts and build it up from there. If your neck is extremely painful then consult your doctor straight away. Finally remember to breathe: breathe out on contraction (on the way up – Beeble) and breathe in on the way down. It is all too common to hold the breath, so concentrate on getting this right.
Video Guide
If you watch the video guide you will see that the movement is fairly small. As I crunch up you can see I only go to the point where my shoulder blades are off the ground and that is it. The movement should be very slow and controlled. On the way down you will also note that I keep it very slow and controlled and this is important. Never just let yourself drop down because you can cause damage and exercise is all about control. You see if you slow the movement on the way down you actually use the muscle, whereas if you just drop you don’t use the muscle nearly as much, if at all.
Different Levels – But Be Careful
On the video I have included three different levels for you. Easy is the one I have been describing so far. Moderate is made harder by bringing your arms up and holding your hands to your temples. Whatever you do, do not place your hands behind your head or hold your head in any way. This is bad technique because during the movement when the abs become tired it is natural for the body to cheat and in this instance it will cheat by the hands pulling on the head to help complete the movement. This can be really dangerous and put a lot of pressure through your neck; if you damage the neck the injury could be permanent. Please be safe and use correct technique. The Hard level is the most difficult because you have pushed more weight above the head creating more work for the abs (a bigger lever – Beeble). Don’t move to this level too early because although you may be able to complete the movement, you don’t want your back to arch up at full stretch. Make sure your back does not arch at all during the movement. To watch anyone of the video demonstrations just click on the play button next to the skill level of crunch that interests you.
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The Do’s
Keep the movement slow and controlled
Keep the back in a neutral position
Breathe (sounds silly but an easy mistake – Beeble)
Only go as far as lifting your shoulder blades off the ground
Only use your stomach muscles to complete the movement
The Don’ts
Don’t hold your breath
Don’t move too quickly (quality not quantity - Beeble)
Don’t arch your back
Don’t just move your neck
Don’t hold your head
Don’t go any further than getting your shoulder blades off the ground
Don’t swing you arms to help with the movement, just go as far and as long as your stomach will let you and try and improve the next time.
Adding it to your Workout
Personally I would pick 4 to 6 different stomach exercise and complete 20 repetitions of each and do a total of 1 to 2 sets each. So that would be a total of 80 – 240 abdominal repetitions in total (Ouch – Beeble). May sound a lot to some and may sound like not much to others but remember it is quality and not quantity. People who are doing over 240 abdominal crunches are potentially just wasting time.
If you have any comments or questions please leave them on the link below I will be only too happy to help. Thank you.
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April 22nd, 2007 at 7:25 pm
[...] This exercise of course works the stomach muscles and is fairly similar to the reverse crunches in the way it works the abdominals. Its main focus is on the transverse abdominals (the belt-like stomach muscle that holds us in at the waist as is responsible for supporting our bodies in all movements – Beeble). It also works the rectus abdominus (your 6 pack – Beeble) better than the majority of other exercises I know. The reason for this is that where the majority of stomach exercises focus on a specific area, and whether they mean to or not, they ignore other areas, this exercise works the 6 pack from the very base all the way to the top. It manages to achieve this by creating pressure lower down in the muscle with the static leg control and focus on the upper portion with the actual crunch movement. This will become more apparent when you watch the video and try it out for yourself. Remember though that if you have body fat that is giving you a larger stomach than you want this exercise will not get rid of the excess fat, nor will any other stomach exercise. You will need to combine the stomach exercises with a good all over exercise program and a good healthy diet. Technique You will need to lie on your back with your legs in the air at 90 degrees. Now slowly lower your legs (keeping them straight – Beeble) until you feel the stomach start to work. Be very careful here; do not let your back arch up of the ground. To prevent this you need to tighten your stomach muscles by drawing your belly button in. This will help keep your back on the ground and prevent any injuries. The stronger your stomach gets the lower you will be able to take your legs but at the start just move them about 5 to 10 degrees. If your back starts to arch up then you have gone to far and just raise the legs to the point where you can control it. Now hold your legs in this position and crunch up. For the different crunch levels look at the crunch exercise video. Crunch up to the point that your shoulder blades are off the ground and then lower yourself back down. Keep this whole movement slow and controlled as this will work your muscles more effectively. Do this exercise right and you will really benefit from it. Aim for about 20 repetitions per set you do. Video Guide You will be able to see from the video (press the play button on the screen below – Beeble) that I do not lower my legs too far. This is because you don’t need to. It’s not a competition and the technique is the most important aspect to this exercise. Once I have my legs in position and I can keep my lower back firmly on the ground I start the crunch movement. The crunch movement is also done fairly slowly to maximise the benefit to the muscles. The longer you spend on the movement the more the muscle is used. [...]
January 21st, 2008 at 8:59 pm
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