Crunches

Crunches is a isolation strength exercise using body only that trains the abdominals.

Open in MyoAmigo →

Primary muscles: Abdominals

How to do it

1. Lie flat on your back with your feet flat on the ground, or resting on a bench with your knees bent at a 90 degree angle. If you are resting your feet on a bench, place them three to four inches apart and point your toes inward so they touch.
2. Now place your hands lightly on either side of your head keeping your elbows in. Tip: Don't lock your fingers behind your head.
3. While pushing the small of your back down in the floor to better isolate your abdominal muscles, begin to roll your shoulders off the floor.
4. Continue to push down as hard as you can with your lower back as you contract your abdominals and exhale. Your shoulders should come up off the floor only about four inches, and your lower back should remain on the floor. At the top of the movement, contract your abdominals hard and keep the contraction for a second. Tip: Focus on slow, controlled movement - don't cheat yourself by using momentum.
5. After the one second contraction, begin to come down slowly again to the starting position as you inhale.
6. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Track it with MyoAmigo

MyoAmigo pre-fills every set of the Crunches from last time, charts your estimated 1RM trend so you can see strength move without testing a true max, and flags a stall with a concrete fix. It also credits this work toward your weekly Abdominals volume on the MyoMap heatmap. New to the movement? Start with picking a working weight and progressive overload.

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