Press your lower back into the ground. Lift your knees to a degree angle. Bring your right knee toward your chest, as if it was on the upward swing of pedaling a bike. At the same time, bring your left elbow toward the knee. Return the elbow back to the starting position and you simultaneously extend your right leg out to a point and bring the left knee toward the chest.
Bring your right elbow to the left knee. Continue to "pedal" your legs and alternate your elbows coming forward for 10 to 15 repetitions. Fitness Workouts Ab Exercises. By Kelsey Casselbury Updated July 9, Aubrey Bailey is a Doctor of Physical Therapy with an additional degree in psychology and board certification in hand therapy. Bailey is also an Anatomy and Physiology professor.
Kelsey Casselbury. Kelsey Casselbury is a freelance writer and editor based in central Maryland. Connect on LinkedIn. You need to have a well balanced plan in addition to doing crunches to get in shape. Video of the Day. Inspect the surface where you will do your crunches. Choose a flat floor or ground and make sure it is comfortable. You can enhance your comfort using a yoga mat instead of lying on a bare hard floor. Lie flat on your back and bend your knees so that your feet are flat on the floor.
Place your hands behind your head with your eyes gazing to the roof. Alternatively, you can place your arms across your chest or behind your neck. Inhale and hold your breath, tighten your core to create pressure, and engage your abs and oblique muscles. Lift your shoulder blades off the floor slowly in a controlled motion while working hard not to curve your back.
Exhale slowly on your way up. Make sure your lower back maintains contact with the floor throughout the exercise. Avoid curving your neck, keep it straight with the chin about a tennis ball away from the chest. Hold for seconds before lowering. Note: Crunching halfway is more effective on the abs than raising to a sit-up.
Raising to an almost sitting position will engage the hip flexors and reduce the engagement of the abs and obliques. Lower your shoulders back to the starting position in a slow and controlled motion.
At the bottom, pause before you raise again. This prevents you from using momentum instead of muscles to raise and prevents injury.
Generally, rushed repetitions are not effective. You should try to assess your personal ability to perform a certain number of sets and slowly add the number of sets as you progress. They can be performed up to 6 times a week.
This is an isolation exercise which targets specific muscles. Crunches mainly work your core muscles, but when performed in variations, it can target more muscle groups at the same time. Different variations of crunches will target different muscle groups with varied intensity. Crunches engage these muscles intensely both in the upward and downward movement.
Crunching frequently will excellently fire up your entire core and leave you with a well-toned trunk musculature. These groups of muscles are especially targeted using crunch variations that involve twisting of your core in right or left sides during crunches.
In some variations involving leg movements like the reversed crunch, scissor and vertical crunches, the exercise specifically targets your hip, lower back, and neck muscles. Fitness professionals have come up with several variations from the original crunches to help you target more muscles effectively. Here are some of the variations and the muscles they target.
This variation is an outstanding choice because it effectively strengthens the core muscles. It is one of the best for working your rectus abdominis.
Lie flat on your back and place your fingertips behind your head. Avoid lacing your fingers. Inhale and hold your breath as you create tension on your abs. Raise your knees and pull them towards your chest as you raise your shoulder blades off the floor.
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The takeaway. Read this next. The 5 Best Ab Exercises for Women.
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