Exercises the abdominal muscle in a way Ground Crunch

Ground Crunch

Exercises the abdominal muscle in a way Ground Crunch

Crunch is a simple and effective exercise to muscle the abdominals. It refines and tightens the waist if you work with body weight, and develops the abdominals if you use an increasingly heavy ballast. It does not require any hardware and can be done anywhere.

Targeted muscles

The crunch mostly appeals to the great right of the abdominals, the famous "chocolate bar", and secondarily the oblique muscles located on the side of the waist. The great right allows the bending of the trunk; it brings the pubis closer to the sternum by a vertebral coil when the pelvis is fixed. It also allows the retroversion of the pelvis when the trunk is fixed.

The crunch has the reputation of more to apply the upper abdominals (above the navel) compared to the pelvis or legs, which would rather work the lower part.

Execution of the exercise

Starting position elongated on the ground or on a bench. The hands can be placed on the head at the temples, on the chest, or along the body (easier). Avoid positioning them behind the neck.

The feet can be placed on the floor, near the buttocks, or rest on a bench. It is also possible to place the thighs vertically, knees bent and spread, crossed feet, so as not to arch the lower back during the movement. Be careful, the more the legs are raised or even stretched, the more the difficulty increases.

Wrap the bust forward by contracting the abdominals. The shoulders only take off a few centimeters from the ground, and the lower back and hips remain fixed.

The return to the starting position must be carried out smoothly, retaining the contraction and tension in the muscle. The speed of execution is slow and constant. A weight can be placed on the chest like a cast iron washer or a dumbbell, to add difficulty to exercise. You can also stretch your arms backwards to increase resistance.

Breathing

Inspiration at the beginning of movement when the rib cage is open. Blow by performing the movement and tighten your abdominals. Respiratory blockage should be avoided.

Safety instructions

Avoid placing your hands behind your head, because often you help yourself to do the exercise when you block. This can lead to cervical problems. The easiest way is to keep your hands on your temples or chest.

Do not lift the lower back, the very small amplitude does not improve exercise efficiency.

Working with unblocked feet, tight and knees apart, limits the activity of the hip flexors, psoas-iliac and anterior straight, and avoids many tensions and pains in the lower back. If you have back pain when you do the abs exercises, this article should help you: Why do I have back pain when I do the abs?

Crunch Tips

As postural muscles, the abdominal muscles are rather enduring and can be worked in long series. We suggest series of 15 to 30 repetitions, but if you can do more, do not hesitate to harden the exercises. At the planning level, 3 complete sessions of abdominals per week will do the trick. But do not forget to work all the muscles that make up this group, not just those that are visible, on the surface! I think especially the transverse, do not zap the cladding!

We can do the abdominals at the end of the session, so that they remain fresh for the global exercises where they are used.

If you find the exercise too easy and you can chain more than 50 repetitions, do not hesitate to harden the exercise by adding resistance. To do this, you can move your hands away from your chest and reach out your arms behind your head. You can of course use weights, discs or dumbbells, to place on the chest or behind the neck. This is especially true if you want to gain weight at the waist (thin people).

We remind you that to get dry and drawn abdominals, doing exercises will not be enough. The exercises allow to strengthen the abdominal muscles and help to reduce the waist circumference, in particular by the practice of the cladding. But only the diet will rid you of the layer of fat that covers them. To do this, review your nutrition and regularly carry out an aerobic activity (cardio-training) in addition to bodybuilding.