Image credit: Brian.LeRoux
How do you train your abs? For a lot of people the answer is using sit-ups. But sit-ups aren’t an effective exercise to train your abs. Worse they can get you injured. Here’s a better exercise to get your six pack – the Reverse Crunch.
The Problem with Sit-ups. First they’re no fun. Everybody hates sit-ups. Next most of you shouldn’t do sit-ups, especially if you have bad posture.
- Shorten Hip Flexors. Excessive sitting shortens your hip flexors. Sit-ups aggravate the problem. They work your hip flexors more than your abs.
- Slouching Shoulders. Good posture is chest up, shoulder-blades back & down. You get the opposite with sit-ups: round back, head forward.
- Back Pain. Common way to cheat on sit-ups is arching your lower back. Guaranteed way to get back pain in the long term.
The Reverse Crunch. The opposite movement of a Sit-up is a Reverse Crunch. It doesn’t cause the same problems. Better it can fix your posture.
- Strengthen Your Abs. More specifically your external obliques. If you never did Reverse Crunches, you’ll get sore abs the first time.
- Correct Lordosis. The Reverse Crunch teaches you to tilt your pelvis posteriorly and strengthens your abs. This corrects lordosis.
- Prevent Kyphosis. You don’t get any depression of your ribcage like on sit-ups. This prevents upper-back rounding: kyphosis.
Reverse Crunch Video. Pay attention to the technique. Upper-thighs don’t go back further than perpendicular to the floor. Lower back goes against the floor at the start of each rep. Movement comes from the abs.
Reverse Crunch Technique. Lie back on the floor. Flex your knees. Raise your knees against your head by crunching your abs. Come back. Use a dumbbell or medicine ball as counter weight.
- Tilt Your Pelvis Back. Push your lower back against the floor on each rep. You shouldn’t be able to put your hands under your back.
- Keep Your Feet Down. Don’t let them come up during the movement. Keep your knees flexed, close to your glutes.
- Keep Your Head Down. Knees move towards your head, head doesn’t move towards your knees. Keep your head on the floor.
- Work Your Abs. Avoid working your hip flexors. Don’t let your legs come past perpendicular to the floor on the way down.
Common Mistakes. Lack of strength can make your body compensate when doing Reverse Crunches. Some things that can go wrong:
- Arching Your Lower Back. Bad for your spine. Posteriorly tilt your pelvis at the start of each rep. Push your lower back against the floor.
- Extending Your Knees. Makes the movement easier. Put something between your legs, like a foam roller, so you can’t cheat.
- Coming Down too Far. Involves your hip flexors. Don’t let your thighs come down further than perpendicular to the floor.
- Moving Your Head up. Causes forward head posture and is cheating. Keep your head on the floor. Move your knees toward your head.
Reverse Crunch Progressions. More strength is more muscle. Your abs must get stronger if you want them to be more muscular. Keep the Reverse Crunch challenging.
- Decrease The Weight. Hold to a 45lbs/20kg dumbbell or heavy medicine ball. Lower the weight as your abs get stronger.
- Remove The Weight. Reverse crunches without counter weight. Keep your hands behind your head and crunch your abs.
- Switch to Dragon Flags. Keep your hips & knees straight and Crunch your abs. Check Dragon Door’s how to.
You can add the Reverse Crunch to StrongLifts 5×5. Do 3×10 at the end of each workout. But remember it’s an accessory exercise. Squat & Deadlift for overall muscle mass. Then lose the fat to get the 6 pack.
If your transverse abdominus isn’t strong, your six pack won’t look very good because your stomach will poke out.
Perhaps Medhi can make a post about how to do a proper stomach vacuum in order to strengthen the transverse abdominus.
@Barry
TVA story is over-rated. You need core stability for back health and Squats/deadlifts. Maybe I’ll make an article once about abdominal bracing, but definitely not about abdominal hollowing.
You read my mind. Just last night I was worrying about how I neglect my abs.
Now I’ve got the perfect exercise to strengthen my core and keep me from injuring myself
I do these while hanging from my pull up bar. Are there any differences/problems from doing them on a pull up bar that I should know about?
Abs…what are those? I really need to start working mine.
@Mike
They’re harder. You got the grip & gravity working against you. If you can do reverse crunches properly, hanging pull-up bar could be the next progression.
What about T GET UPS?? If we do have to include in 5×5 then which one to choose T GET UPS or REVERSE CRUNCH??
Mehdi, any opinions on the AbMat? I’ve been using one for about 5 months and am very happy with it. It essentially removes the hip flexors from the equation and supports the lower back.
What’s a good rep/set count for this?
I did this exercise today n got following questions:
Q1. What’s with that weight?? Do we need to hold dumbbell on the floor?? I used 45lbs today but don’t see what’s it roll would be. I am missing something here on the weight thing
Q2. Can we keep our legs together? Meaning attached together for entire motion?
@hemram4u
Beginners are often too exhausted to do turkish get-ups at the end of the workout. So better would be reverse crunches.
Q1. Try reverse crunches without a dumbbell, you’ll see what the dumbbell is for.
Q2. Yes knees together.
@Brendan
Check how the upper-back rounds/shoulders slouch forward on the way up. Most people already have a round upper-back, this aggravates the problem.
@Whitney
3 sets of 10 reps is fine.
Hell, I’m often too exhausted to do TGUs at the end of a workout.
I can do dragon flags 3×10, but damn my abs are sore today.
Hello Mehdi!
I have recently looked up the reverse crunch because I am trying to do exercises for correcting my anterior pelvic tilt, and have found this:
http://www.ehow.com/video_16237_reverse-crunch.html
Note the form is different from yours, the focus here lies on tilting the pelvis using the abs, and not the full movement you show. Also, in your description “Correct Lordosis. The Reverse Crunch teaches you to tilt your pelvis posteriorly and strengthens your abs. This corrects lordosis.” and then under mistakes: “Arching Your Lower Back. Bad for your spine. Posteriorly tilt your pelvis at the start of each rep. Push your lower back against the floor.” Now do I have to tilt my pelvis or not?
What is your opinion on the above for the circumstance that my #1 goal is to correct lordosis?
Thanks in advance, and keep up the good work! I really enjoy reading your articles!
Balazs
@Balazs
Some people will still succeed to do some arching motion at the start of each rep on reverse crunches. You need to tilt your pelvis back. My opinion is that there are better exercises to fix anterior pelvic tilt. Thanks for the kind words Balazs.
what about abs isometric exercise like the bridge?
thanks
@arsenicus
I like & do prone/side bridges. Reverse crunches are definitely not the only exercises, they’re just a better alternative to sit-ups.
What’s your oppinion on keeping the hips flexed in order to avoid using momentum?
In other words: how’s about keeping both your feet AND knees close to your body?
@jihad4o
It gets too easy that way. Getting a better ab workout keeping 90° hip flexion. You can avoid momentum by controlling the movement.
Happy you touched the abs topic! Thanks for the post, helped me a lot!
Mehdi, what is your opinion about ab wheel rollouts, that you regularly see Ross Enamait do in his video’s, for building abs?
hey,
My first post. Just wanted to first say absolutely great site.
I believe i’m doing these correctly (reverse crunches). I do seem to find that my mid back hurts a bit if i do a few extra of these or if i do them 2 days in a row. It hurts a little in the area where the back bends, the middle of the back, i guess. What I think may be happening is I’m using the knee cheat, where my knees are coming down instead of staying in the right position. Hence (because of the knee bend) my back bends a bit more than it should. What would you say?