Learn The Right Way To Do Stomach Crunches...
Stomach crunches are your basic, bread and butter exercise for abdominal strength. If you want 6 pack abs or a flat sexy stomach then learning how to do stomach crunches correctly is extremely important. They'll be more effective and you'll find them more enjoyable. Crunches... enjoyable?! You betcha.
Now you might already know this...
It is possible to strain different muscles around your body while doing crunches. So...
We're going to help you make sure you don't end up with any injuries while doing your core training at home. Your first lesson on stomach crunches is...
'Awareness'
Muscle tension awareness that is...
Muscle tension is a very subconscious thing. It can be very difficult to actually realise how much tension you're holding in different areas of your body. You actually have to consciously check each part of your body to make sure everything is nice and relaxed.
When you do crunches you need to make sure that your abs are doing the work. Not your neck or your arms, or anywhere else. Just your abs.
Isolating your abs like this gives you much better gains. Your tummy will look better than ever in less time than ever :)
Here is the correct technique for stomach crunches |
Stomach Crunches Instructions
There are two ways to do crunches. You can either... a) Place your feet slightly wider than hip width apart on the floor like in the above photographs. b) Raise your feet until your lower legs are parallel with the floor. This is shown in the photograph below. You can also do this using a swiss ball if you like.
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Make sure your neck is in a neutral position. ie: not tucked into your chest and not too far back. A good rule is to look at the ceiling as you do the crunches. Notice the different between these two photographs. The first shows Toms chin tucked in and the second shows good technique with Tom looking towards the ceiling
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Make sure your lower back is flat on the ground. You achieve this by tucking your hips until you can feel your back touch the floor. See how there is a gap underneath Toms lower back in the first photograph. This isn't good. Just roll your hips and your lower back will touch the ground.
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Place your fingertips just behind your ears. Whatever you do, don't clasp them behind your head. This will make you want to pull your head forward when the going gets tough. And believe us, it will :)
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Now pull your stomach muscles in towards your spine. Squeeze your abdominals and lift your shoulder blades off the ground. You should aim to go as high as you can without lifting your lower back off the ground.
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Exhale as you situp and inhale when you lie back down.
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So now that you're an expert at stomach crunches you can add them into your home ab workouts. You will start to see some encouraging results. Try doing 3 sets of 20 to start off with and slowly build up. Keep on going until you really feel the burn!
Once you've got some sexy looking washboard abs you can enter our 6 pack abs of the month competition...
Other fitness training articles that we have linked to from this page:
- Mastered stomach crunches? You're ready for some different abdominal exercises
- Get some sexy six pack abs
- Show off all that hard work you've been doing...
- Learn how to do your core training at home
Get into shape in your spare time!
