Reverse Crunches
Reverse Crunches are an all time classic bodyweight strength exercise and are rarely performed by people in the gym. Most people seem to simply be unaware of the tremendous value of this awesome exercise and the potential that it has for creating overall abdominal strength and muscle definition.
It is not an easy beginner exercise but it is not a highly difficult expert level exercise either. Once several basic abdominal exercises are mastered, you can move on to Reverse Crunches and can continue performing them for the rest of your life. When regular Reverse Crunches eventually become too easy, you can move on to Incline Reverse Crunches to increase the difficulty.
Prerequisite exercises: Crunches, Sit-ups (no foothold), Hanging Knee Raises, Plank.
To perform Reverse Crunches lay flat on your back on a flat bench (with your head near the end of the bench) and grab the end of the bench tightly with your hands. Tuck your knees up over your stomach (causing your butt to come off of the bench slightly) without lifting your lower back off of the bench. This is your starting position.
From the starting position, squeeze your abs tightly (as you would if you were performing a regular Crunch) while pulling with your arms to keep your upper torso down flat on the bench. This will cause your hips and lower torso move towards your face as your abdominal muscles crunch tighter and tighter (shortening the distance between the pelvis and the rib cage). Essentially the motion is identical to that of regular Crunches except that its in reverse (hence the name of the exercise - Reverse Crunches) because your hips are moving towards your rib cage rather than your rib cage moving towards your hips.
It is often tempting for people to attempt to turn this exercise into a "leg raise" rather than a crunch when they first try it. It is very important that you keep you leg tucked in tight throughout the entire exercise. The movement of the exercise should merely be a crunching motion of the torso. There should be no raising and lowering of the legs separately from the movement of the torso. The legs should simply stay tucked in and be "along for the ride" so to speak.
A couple of key technique points that will assist in the mastery of this exercise as well as in the results it produces:
Side Note: This exercise can be very difficult to perform correctly if you have a large protruding belly. If this is the case, you may need to lose a good portion of the belly fat before being able to perform this exercise even if you have the bodyweight strength to perform it. This is simply because the belly will get in the way and prevent your body from forming the tightly crunch position that it needs to form in order to carry out this exercise.
Disclaimer - We do not recommend performing any exercise without the supervision of a highly qualified bodyweight strength professional present with you. This detailed exercise description is for informational purposes only. Consult your physician before attempting any strength training program or attempting this exercise or any of the other exercises on www.bodyweight-strength.com
It is not an easy beginner exercise but it is not a highly difficult expert level exercise either. Once several basic abdominal exercises are mastered, you can move on to Reverse Crunches and can continue performing them for the rest of your life. When regular Reverse Crunches eventually become too easy, you can move on to Incline Reverse Crunches to increase the difficulty.
Prerequisite exercises: Crunches, Sit-ups (no foothold), Hanging Knee Raises, Plank.
To perform Reverse Crunches lay flat on your back on a flat bench (with your head near the end of the bench) and grab the end of the bench tightly with your hands. Tuck your knees up over your stomach (causing your butt to come off of the bench slightly) without lifting your lower back off of the bench. This is your starting position.
From the starting position, squeeze your abs tightly (as you would if you were performing a regular Crunch) while pulling with your arms to keep your upper torso down flat on the bench. This will cause your hips and lower torso move towards your face as your abdominal muscles crunch tighter and tighter (shortening the distance between the pelvis and the rib cage). Essentially the motion is identical to that of regular Crunches except that its in reverse (hence the name of the exercise - Reverse Crunches) because your hips are moving towards your rib cage rather than your rib cage moving towards your hips.
It is often tempting for people to attempt to turn this exercise into a "leg raise" rather than a crunch when they first try it. It is very important that you keep you leg tucked in tight throughout the entire exercise. The movement of the exercise should merely be a crunching motion of the torso. There should be no raising and lowering of the legs separately from the movement of the torso. The legs should simply stay tucked in and be "along for the ride" so to speak.
A couple of key technique points that will assist in the mastery of this exercise as well as in the results it produces:
- Breathe out forcefully as you crunch yourself up. This will cause the entire abdominal area to contract tighter and will also allow you to crunch further because your lungs and diaphragm will not cause an obstruction like they would if you kept a full breath of air in them. After reaching the top of the exercise, breathe back in again on the way back down to the starting position for the next rep. By the time your reach the bottom of the rep to being to the next rep, you should have breathed in enough to be able to breathe out again as you perform the next rep.
- Focus on very smooth motion that remains under the tight control of your abs when you change directions at the bottom of each rep. Do not set your hips back on the bench between reps or allow your abs to relax for even an instant. Simply slow your motion down nearly to a stop and then smoothly begin crunching back upward/inward again by creating abdominal pressure, beginning to breathe out, and by squeezing your abs into their crunching motion again. The better you get at controlling this portion of the exercise, the better results you can obtain from Reverse Crunches.
Side Note: This exercise can be very difficult to perform correctly if you have a large protruding belly. If this is the case, you may need to lose a good portion of the belly fat before being able to perform this exercise even if you have the bodyweight strength to perform it. This is simply because the belly will get in the way and prevent your body from forming the tightly crunch position that it needs to form in order to carry out this exercise.
Disclaimer - We do not recommend performing any exercise without the supervision of a highly qualified bodyweight strength professional present with you. This detailed exercise description is for informational purposes only. Consult your physician before attempting any strength training program or attempting this exercise or any of the other exercises on www.bodyweight-strength.com