Dynamic Core · Beginner
Crunch
Isolation dynamic core exercise using bodyweight.
- Movement pattern
- Dynamic Core
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanics
- Isolation
- Sides
- Bilateral
- Main plane
- Sagittal
How to do the Crunch
Setup
Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor, hands lightly supporting your head (not pulling on it).
Curl your shoulders and upper back off the floor by flexing your spine -- a small, controlled range is the point, not a big sit-up-style rise.
Keep your hips and lower back on the floor throughout; minimizing hip-flexor involvement is what makes this an ab exercise rather than a hip-flexor exercise.
Lower under control back to the start.
Common mistakes
Pulling on your neck/head with your hands to force more range instead of curling from the abs.
Lifting your hips or lower back off the floor, which brings the hip flexors in and takes emphasis off the rectus abdominis.
Muscles worked
Primary
Secondary
How the knowledge graph models this movement
Spine flexion