Ab Crunches Tone
Your Stomach Muscles

Ab crunches will help to strengthen the muscles around your stomach. Find videos and instructions to do various crunches correctly. Get results and enjoy these exercises.

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Most people tend to either love or hate doing ab crunches. Chances are, if you hate them, then you're either doing them wrong or are doing too many.

First of all, you need to know why you're doing them. And the reason is to strengthen your abdominal muscles. If you answered "to get a 6-pack", that's your first mistake.

The whole point of having strong abs is to create a stable core (abs, back and hips). Make sure you do these other core exercises to keep your body balanced and injury free.

Strengthening the muscles around your stomach won't make your belly fat disappear. If you're aiming to get a 6-pack, then you'll have to do fat burning exercises, to burn that belly fat covering your abs.

Also make sure you're eating a healthy, balanced diet. It's the most ignored aspect of burning fat, but probably the most important.

Now you know why you're doing ab crunches, you can get stuck into them. But if you have poor technique, you'll either get injured or won't see any results at all.

I'll cover the best technique below, but remember to keep each repetition slow and controlled. I hear so many people braggin' about doing hundreds of crunches. But when I see them, their form is all over the place. To me, that's not clever at all - and is nothing to brag about!

The best way to enjoy ab crunches and get fast results, is to do them in ab circuit workouts. That means doing several different exercises one after the other, with short rests in-between.

That way you won't get bored. And you'll stay injury free, because you won't be doing hundreds of reps that lead to poor form.

Ab Crunches - My favourites

Here are my top ab crunch variations. Start by doing 5-10 reps of each and build up to a maximum of 20 reps in any one set. You can also work to time in circuits (i.e. 20 seconds exercise, 30 seconds rest).

Standard Ab Crunches

1. Lie on your back on an exercise mat, bend your knees up and keep your feet flat on the floor.
2. Place your finger tips by your ears, elbows pointed to the sides.
3. Brace those deep core muscles, and make sure your lower back is flat against the mat.
4. Use your abs to lift your shoulders up. Keep going until you feel your shoulder blades are slightly off the mat.
5. Then slowly come back down. Go straight into the next rep without relaxing.
6. Repeat until you complete your reps.

Tips:

• Exhale as you crunch up, inhale as you come down.
• Focus on bracing your core and really work those abs.
• Keep your chin up, fix your eyes on a point on the ceiling.
• Keep your lower back pressed into the mat, don't let it arch up.
• Make this exercise harder by doing it on an exercise ball.

Reverse Ab Crunches

1. Lie on your back on an exercise mat, bend your hips and knees at 90 degree angles (so your feet end up in the air). Cross one ankle over the other.
2. Keep your arms flat on the mat by your sides, palms down by your butt.
3. Use your abs to bring your knees towards your chest, keep going until your hips are slightly off the mat.
4. Then slowly come back down to the starting position. Go straight into the next rep without relaxing.
5. Repeat until you complete your reps.

Tips:

• Exhale as you crunch, inhale as you come down.
• Keep your shoulders, neck and head relaxed on the mat.

Bicycle Crunches

1. Lie on your back on an exercise mat, hands by your ears (elbows pointed to the sides), hips and knees bent at 90 degree angles (feet off the floor).
2. Straighten your left knee whilst bending your right knee further up. Use your abs to lift and turn your upper body to bring your left elbow towards your right knee (don't cheat by bending at your shoulder!).
3. Then slowly come back down and repeat with the opposite knee and elbow to create a bicycle kicking action and simultaneous body rotation.
4. Repeat until you complete your reps.

Tips:

• Breathe steadily, try and get into a rhythm.
• Don't lose form just to complete the set. If you're struggling then stop and rest, or move on to your next exercise.
• Focus on making your abdominal muscles do the work.

Click here for more tips and videos of bicycle crunches.

U-Crunches

1. Lie on your back on an exercise mat.
2. Brace your deep core muscles.
3. Lift your legs up towards the sky with a slight bend in your knees, keep your hands on your chest.
4. Use your abs to lift your shoulders up and create a "U" shape, keep going until you feel your shoulder blades lift slightly off the mat.
5. Then slowly come back down to the starting position.
6. Repeat until you complete your reps.

Tips:

• Exhale as you crunch up, inhale as you come down.
• Focus on bracing your core and really work those abs.
• Keep your chin up, fix your eyes on a point on the ceiling.

Ab Crunches - Videos

Enjoy these ab crunch exercises! Check out these quality videos for a visual idea of the best ab crunches technique:

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