Beebleblog

What is it for?

This exercise trains our good friend the rectus abdominus (the 6 pack, surely you haven’t forgotten? – Beeble) in exactly the same way as the normal crunch does. However adding the pulse really takes it up a level and makes it that bit harder. Making it harder means it works your stomach that bit more and even though it is just a small additional movement you really will feel it. As with the normal crunch it concentrates on the upper section of your abdominals. Now we all want a nice flat toned stomach but use the Crunch and Pulse as a part of an overall program. The exercise by itself will not necessarily give you a flat stomach. You need to reduce the excess body fat that sits on top of your muscles, to do this you will need to combine a good all body workout routine combined with a good wholefood diet. Click on our diet section to learn more on this area.

Technique

By now you should be well practised with the crunch and so moving on to this exercise should be as easy as 1-2-3. Lie down on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground. Now put your hands on your thighs and slide your arms up your legs to your knees. Do this by tightening up your stomach muscles and raise your head and shoulder blades off the ground. In the crunch you would now lower yourself back down to the ground, but with this exercise you now need to do ‘the pulse’. At the top of the crunch you now need to squeeze your stomach that bit tighter to make yourself go that bit higher so you are working your stomach that bit harder. The actual movement of the pulse is tiny and depending on how far you have taken the initial crunch you may not even notice any visible extra movement. This tiny pulse makes sure that you get the full movement range from your stomach muscles. You can make this more difficult in the same way you can make the crunch more difficult: by moving your hands towards your temples (don’t hold your head it can be dangerous – Beeble) and harder still by holding your arms up above your head in line with your whole body.

You may find that during the movement 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 the point just before the neck started to hurt 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

Now if you thought the crunch was a small movement then this pulse is absolutely tiny (small movement big gains – Beeble). In the video you will see that the movement is slow and after crunching up I hold the movement for a fraction of a second and then complete the pulse and move back down again nice and slowly. This is an exercise where breathing is made very difficult, so make sure you breath out on the upward movement and through the pulse part of the exercise and then breath in on the way down. Try to copy my movement exactly as keeping it slow and controlled will work the muscles more effectively. You will notice that I chose the moderate level to demonstrate by holding my hands to my temples. I do not under any circumstances actually hold my head (very dangerous – Beeble).

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The Do’s

•     Only use your stomach muscles to complete the movement
•     Keep the movement slow and controlled
•     Hold the crunch before completing the pulse
•     Breathe (sounds silly but an easy mistake – Beeble)
•     Only go as far as lifting your shoulder blades off the ground
•     Concentrate on a spot on the ceiling and let your head tilt back slightly to help reduce neck ache

The Don’ts

•     Don’t hold your breath
•     Don’t move too quickly (quality not quantity - Beeble)
•     Don’t arch your lower 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 your arms to help with the movement, just go as far and as long as your stomach will let you and try and improve it 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. 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. (So stop trying to impress us! - Beeble)

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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