Some people completely shrink back from direct ab exercises, either out of boredom or because they consider the large compound exercises like squats and overhead presses work their abs enough. But loads of other lifters make ab training a priority, be it to enhance performance or their physique.

In relation to a good-looking set of abs, lower ab development is particularly coveted. Exercises that involve leg movement, equivalent to various leg lifts or the straightforward reverse crunch, are commonly used to focus on this area. Is it a legitimate strategy? Possibly, as you’ll soon learn.

Credit: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock

In any case, the reverse crunch is an easy and effective exercise to construct and strengthen your abs, improve spine stabilization, and develop into a fitter, more muscular human being. For a lot of, it’s the primary “leg raising” exercise learned, so it’s time you recognize tips on how to do it properly and reap its advantages.

How one can Do the Reverse Crunch

Although it’s a beginner-friendly exercise, you could have to make sure proper form when you want maximal efficiency while avoiding pain. The reverse crunch is barely more complex than a standard crunch since it involves leg movement, torso flexion, in addition to spinal control. Here’s tips on how to do it right.

Step 1 — Lie Down in Position

Credit: Philip Date / Shutterstock

No need for equipment — aside from a gym mat when you need some comfort. Simply lie down on the ground. Keep your upper body completely flat, squeeze your glutes, and tilt your pelvis backwards to push your lower back into the bottom. This may prevent your lower back from arching at any point through the lift.

Place your arms on the ground by your side, palms down, and use them for balance. Bend your legs and set your feet flat on the bottom.

Form tip: If you could have trouble keeping your lower back flat, lift your shoulder blades barely off the bottom. This may aid you create more tension in your abs and supply more control over your spine and hips. Having an arched back reduces your ability to contract your abs.

Step 2 — Bring Your Knees Toward Your Head

Credit: Philip Date / Shutterstock

Take a breath into your belly and brace your abs. Tuck your legs towards your face until your hips and lower back lift from the bottom. As your legs move, maintain a roughly 90-degree angle at your knees.

No other movement should occur in your body: keep your legs at the identical angle, brace as much as you’ll be able to, and drive your hands into the bottom to stabilize yourself. Go slow so that you just don’t risk losing posture. In the highest position, your hips needs to be off the bottom for optimum ab recruitment.

Form tip: If you desire to make the exercise harder, straighten your legs as you start the movement or after you’ve reached the highest position. This creates an extended lever arm and increases the challenge in your core muscles.

Step 3 — Lower Your Legs With Control

Credit: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock

Lower your legs slowly until your feet touch the bottom and also you’ve returned to the starting position. Moving at a comparatively slower speed helps you are feeling your abs working and eliminates momentum.

To maintain tension in your core, don’t allow your lower back to arch as you bring your legs down. Keep your pelvis tilted backwards and your lower back pushed into the bottom throughout all the repetition.

Form tip: In case your back begins to arch as your legs move, bend your legs more. Shortening the range of motion may help. Until you could have enough total-core control, only lower your legs until you are feeling your back beginning to arch, after which reverse the movement.

Reverse Crunch Mistakes to Avoid

Ab exercises that incorporate leg movement are liable to bad form because many individuals lose focus. Although the reverse crunch might be the only leg raise-type of exercise, mistakes are still frequent.

Arching Your Lower Back

This can be a frequent mistake with beginners, because many latest lifters lack spinal control and core strength. Arching your lower back will decrease ab involvement and shift more of the workload towards the hip flexors.

Credit: Elnur / Shutterstock

Is it a foul thing? Well, when you want better-looking abs, it won’t be as efficient. More importantly, this may cause stress on the lower back region. If you desire to avoid pain and potential injuries, aim to reduce lower back arching and hip flexor involvement. (1)

Avoid it: Make sure that your core is all the time braced and under tension. If you’re not flexing your trunk, be certain that your lower back is firmly involved with the bottom. Do the exercise slowly and with control. Barely elevate your shoulder blades from the ground to further engage your core, if needed. 

Using Momentum

It may possibly be tempting to permit momentum to take over since it makes the exercise easier, but it would greatly diminish muscle activation. In the event you start swinging your legs around, you’ll find yourself using mostly your hip flexors in lieu of your abs, and also you risk arching your lower back through the eccentric (descent).

Credit: antoniodiaz / Shutterstock

In the event you’re aiming for muscle growth, that is inefficient as it would also reduce time under tension and also you’ll must perform many more repetitions, and spend more time and overall effort, simply to have the identical stimulus as a strict movement. (2) This may put more strain in your hip joints and lower back, possibly leading to pain or injuries.

Avoid it: There may be a certain execution speed at which your body will lose muscle tension and optimal bracing. It is best to never reach that speed but, unfortunately, you simply understand it when you reach it. In the event you’re unsure, simply use a slow tempo — two to a few seconds on the concentric (lifting) and two to a few seconds for the eccentric (lowering).

Advantages of the Reverse Crunch

The best exercises are sometimes essentially the most efficient, and the reverse crunch isn’t any exception. Find out how this lift can improve your fitness and supply advantages that other ab exercises lack.

Abdominal Muscle Growth

They are saying that “abs are made within the kitchen,” but they are literally made within the gym. A balanced weight-reduction plan and a healthy body fat will only reveal them, but when you desire to display a formidable set of abs, you could have to coach them like all other muscle.

A properly executed reverse crunch will offer significant time under tension and supply a special stimulus than what your abs are used to when you’ve only been doing standard crunches or sit-ups. Incorporating the movement for variety may also help construct more muscle. (3)

Core Strength

This exercise will improve ab strength and boost your core and bracing abilities. The reverse crunch teaches you tips on how to transfer energy out of your your core to other limbs (your legs, specifically). You furthermore mght learn tips on how to brace properly for optimum efficiency and strength.

Credit: antoniodiaz / Shutterstock

The overall principle is analogous to squatting, where your core helps you transfer the energy out of your legs through your core and into the barbell. The reverse crunch can aid you recuperate at compound exercises which require core stability, making you a stronger and more complete lifter.

Spinal Control

The hard a part of the exercise is definitely to exert proper ab tension while bracing enough to stop your lower back from arching. Maintaining this strong position will teach you tips on how to stabilize your spine and efficiently brace your core. Improved spinal stability and control can reduce your risk of lower back pain and injuries, and improve your total-body strength. (4)(5)

Muscles Worked by the Reverse Crunch

The reverse crunch is a trunk flexion exercise, which implies that it would mainly goal the rectus abdominis, but a lot of the core will actually contribute. Ab exercises which incorporate leg movement are said to emphasise lower-ab development. Let’s see if that’s true and what muscles it trains.

Rectus Abdominis

That is the famous “six pack.” It’s essentially the most visible ab muscle and goes from the pelvis to the sternum. The most important function of the rectus abdominis is to flex the trunk by bringing the ribs and the pelvis closer together.

Credit: Chad Zuber / Shutterstock

Now, here’s the tricky part: It’s often claimed that you would be able to “goal” the upper or lower sections of the muscle. Typically, ab exercises which bring the ribs closer to the pelvis are considered “upper ab exercises.” Movements which bring the pelvis closer to the ribs, just like the reverse crunch, are considered “lower ab exercises.”

Nevertheless, the rectus abdominis continues to be one single muscle (with multiple tendons running across it) so it’s all the time fully contracted. Is it really possible to emphasise the lower separate from the upper? Let’s have a look at the research.

One study didn’t find a major difference between exercises when it comes to upper or lower ab recruitment. (6) However the exercises were performed with the lifters’ hands under their lower back, which may need caused less lower abs involvement by increasing the back arch.

Comparatively, some studies have found a difference in activation. (7) If the hips are flexed towards the ribs while the upper body stays stationary, the lower abs have been shown to do more work.

So evidently recruiting the lower abs is highly related to exercise selection. You can not “isolate” the upper or the lower abs — the rectus abdominis will all the time work as an entire — but some movements can stress either section barely more. Properly performed exercises that contract the abdominals by rotating your pelvis closer to your (stationary) ribcage may emphasize the lower abs greater than the upper. (8)

Obliques

The inner and external obliques are the “side abs” going out of your hip bones up towards your ribs. They’re significantly recruited when twisting from the waist or bending sideways.

The obliques are also barely involved in flexing the trunk, and so they work heavily to stop the body from bending or twisting. They’re recruited, particularly in the highest portion of the reverse crunch, to stabilize your lower body because it raises barely into the air.

Hip Flexors

The hip flexors are a series of muscles accountable for bringing the leg up towards the body. These relatively small but powerful muscles are involved within the reverse crunch due to leg movement. They’re particularly activated as your legs are lowered to the bottom and raised from it.

In the event you fail to lift your pelvis towards your torso in the highest a part of each repetition, the hip flexors (and never the abdominals) might be the first muscles worked through the reverse crunch.

Who Should Do the Reverse Crunch

Ab exercises will be useful to virtually anyone, so you need to likely include some direct ab exercises in your training. Here’s when the reverse crunch, specifically, is most helpful.

People Who Need to Look Good

If you desire to sport an aesthetic physique, then you should do some direct ab work. One psychology study even revealed that well-developed abdominals are essentially the most desirable body part for men, and in the highest three for ladies. (9)

In the event you want your upper body to be pleasing to the attention, then including reverse crunches as a part of your training will go a great distance, especially when paired with a selected fat loss weight-reduction plan and an overall well-muscled physique.

Strength Athletes

Many strength lifts equivalent to squats, deadlifts, or presses require a powerful core to support moving the heaviest weights possible. The reverse crunch might help by developing the muscles accountable for increasing intra-abdominal pressure, improving spinal control and stability, and increasing bracing abilities. A stronger core is shown to assist make you stronger as an entire. (10)

Sports Athletes

In the identical fashion, core strength will aid you develop more speed and power when you’re a general sports athlete. (11) We rarely consider it, but running, jumping, and throwing all require core strength and total-body coordination. Furthermore, the reverse crunch strengthens the hip flexors, which can are heavily involved in running, jumping, and agility.

Individuals with Back Issues

In the event you’ve experienced back pain, or want to stop it, strengthening your abs is just as essential as strengthening your lower back. The body needs balance as a way to perform optimally. Unfortunately, modern life often results in muscular imbalances, poor posture, and an absence of general physical condition. The reverse crunch can aid you combat these potential lower back issues by improving core strength. (12)

How one can Program the Reverse Crunch

As a basic body weight exercise, the reverse crunch is kind of straightforward to program. You may as well add some resistance to spice things up a bit. Adopt these repetition schemes when you want maximal profit, as a substitute of doing countless low-effort reps.

Unweighted, Moderate to High Reps

This can be a common range for ab exercises. Three to 4 sets of 10 to twenty repetitions with 30 to 60 seconds of rest will do the trick, provided you utilize perfect form. In the event you can bang out an ultra-high variety of reps, it’s an indicator that you just’re using improper form otherwise you’re a beast that should add some resistance.

Weighted, Moderate Reps

You’ll be able to either secure a small weight plate in your ankles and shins or hold a dumbbell or medicine ball between your feet. A load that’s difficult for three to 4 sets of six to 12 repetitions will provide an increased challenge to construct strength or stimulate latest growth. It’s essential to maintain your form the identical or it would defeat the aim of the exercise.

Reverse Crunch Variations

Perhaps you’ve had enough of lying on the bottom or you desire to stimulate your abs and hip flexors in a latest fashion. Listed here are some kickass variations that may share the identical advantages because the reverse crunch and deal with your lower abs.

Hanging Leg Raise

Hang from a pull-up bar, hanging knee raise station, or Roman chair. To essentially recruit your abs and never deal with your hip flexors, make sure to curl your pelvis up toward your chest at the highest of the movement.

That is an efficient movement because it may easily be scaled down, by bending the legs, or scaled up by aiming to the touch your feet to the bar over your head. Furthermore, the hanging version may also “decompress” your spine, providing comfortable relief after an intense pulling workout or leg day.

V-Up

This can be a relatively advanced body weight exercise, but when you’ve mastered the reverse crunch, this generally is a progression as a substitute of adding resistance. The v-up is one of the powerful movements to enhance core bracing since it requires a high level of abdominal tension combined with leg and arm movement.

The exercise will teach you to transfer energy efficiently between your limbs, in addition to provide a serious workout for the abs, hip flexors, and even the serratus — a key muscle for shoulder stability and performance.

Lying Leg Raise

That is the reverse crunch’s almost-identical twin brother. It appears similar, but subtle differences offer unique advantages. The lying leg raise only involves leg movement without raising the pelvis or hips, so it would focus more on recruiting the hip flexors.

Nevertheless, so long as you prevent any lower back arching, your abs will get a serious workout as well. The general technique is simpler, making it is comparatively simpler than the reverse crunch.

Reverse Crunch Alternatives

What if you desire to train your abs while emphasizing the upper part? Don’t worry, you’re covered with these alternatives.

Crunch

The direct opposite of the reverse crunch. The great ol’ crunch is usually butchered since the range of motion is so short, but when done appropriately, it may be a implausible ab exercise.

Since it only involves upper trunk flexion, this exercise will torch your upper abs. The fundamental crunch is possibly one of the easy and effective ways to coach the abs.

Cable Crunch

This exercise is favored for its simplicity and for the way convenient it’s so as to add potentially heavy resistance. The cable crunch is the bread and butter for any lifter who wants to construct a robust core.

The cable crunch is among the finest ways to develop stronger, greater abs through progressive overload. A properly done cable crunch will end in superior upper abs recruitment with little to no hip flexor involvement.

Sit-up

The sit-up is the quintessential ab exercise present in many skilled and athletic physical fitness tests. It’s highly efficient for constructing, and assessing, total core strength and development.

Like all crunch variations, you’ll be able to easily add external resistance with a weight plate or weighted vest, but many lifters find the properly performed sit-up to be relatively difficult resulting from the long range of motion.

FAQs

Should I do the reverse crunch at first or at the top of a workout?

Each will be valid tactics. Training abs at the top of a workout is the standard strategy to go, and for good reason. By ending with ab work, your core won’t be as fatigued through the session when you desire to be fresh for heavier exercises, like squats.

But when you’re someone that loathes training abs, doing them first will be sure that you don’t skip them since you’re “too drained” after an exhausting workout. You almost certainly won’t be as strong through the first few  sessions, but you’ll likely adapt and profit within the long-run.

Will the reverse crunch shred my abs?

Unfortunately, no. This exercise will strengthen your abs and stimulate muscle growth, in order that they can look higher, but you could have to have the opportunity to see them first. The one thing that may reveal your abs is to attain a low enough body fat percentage.

For that, you should check your energy expenditure and be in a caloric deficit long enough so that you just melt your belly and reveal your six-pack. You’ll be able to eat less calories, and/or burn more calories through physical activities or cardio.

Reverse Engineer Your Solution to a Great Set of Abs

Incorporating the reverse crunch in your training regimen doesn’t just deliver a greater looking six-pack. It’s an ignored strategy to construct a stronger and healthier core. It’s time to stop avoiding ab work, get on the ground, and get those knees up.

References

1. Avrahami, D., & Potvin, J. R. (2014). The clinical and biomechanical effects of fascial-muscular lengthening therapy on tight hip flexor patients with and without low back pain. The Journal of the Canadian Chiropractic Association, 58(4), 444–455.

2. Burd NA, Andrews RJ, West DW, Little JP, Cochran AJ, Hector AJ, Cashaback JG, Gibala MJ, Potvin JR, Baker SK, Phillips SM. Muscle time under tension during resistance exercise stimulates differential muscle protein sub-fractional synthetic responses in men. J Physiol. 2012 Jan 15;590(2):351-62. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2011.221200. Epub 2011 Nov 21. PMID: 22106173; PMCID: PMC3285070.

3. Baz-Valle E, Schoenfeld BJ, Torres-Unda J, Santos-Concejero J, Balsalobre-Fernández C. The results of exercise variation in muscle thickness, maximal strength and motivation in resistance trained men. PLoS One. 2019 Dec 27;14(12):e0226989. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226989. PMID: 31881066; PMCID: PMC6934277.
4. Huxel Bliven KC, Anderson BE. Core stability training for injury prevention. Sports Health. 2013 Nov;5(6):514-22. doi: 10.1177/1941738113481200. PMID: 24427426; PMCID: PMC3806175.
5. Stokes IA, Gardner-Morse MG, Henry SM. Abdominal muscle activation increases lumbar spinal stability: evaluation of contributions of various muscle groups. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2011 Oct;26(8):797-803. doi: 10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2011.04.006. Epub 2011 May 14. PMID: 21571410; PMCID: PMC3157598.
6. Lehman GJ, McGill SM. Quantification of the differences in electromyographic activity magnitude between the upper and lower portions of the rectus abdominis muscle during chosen trunk exercises. Phys Ther. 2001 May;81(5):1096-101. PMID: 11319934.
7. Sarti MA, Monfort M, Fuster MA, Villaplana LA. Muscle activity in upper and lower rectus abdominus during abdominal exercises. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 1996 Dec;77(12):1293-7. doi: 10.1016/s0003-9993(96)90195-1. PMID: 8976314.

8. Duncan M. (2009). Muscle activity of the upper and lower rectus abdominis during exercises performed on and off a Swiss ball. Journal of bodywork and movement therapies, 13(4), 364–367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbmt.2008.11.008

9. Durkee PK, Polo P, Muñoz-Reyes JA, et al. Men’s Bodily Attractiveness: Muscles as Fitness Indicators. Evolutionary Psychology. April 2019. doi:10.1177/1474704919852918 
10. Kocahan T, Akınoğlu B. Determination of the connection between core endurance and isokinetic muscle strength of elite athletes. J Exerc Rehabil. 2018 Jun 30;14(3):413-418. doi: 10.12965/jer.1836148.074. PMID: 30018927; PMCID: PMC6028208.
11. Shinkle J, Nesser TW, Demchak TJ, McMannus DM. Effect of core strength on the measure of power within the extremities. J Strength Cond Res. 2012 Feb;26(2):373-80. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e31822600e5. PMID: 22228111.
12. Kumar T, Kumar S, Nezamuddin M, Sharma VP. Efficacy of core muscle strengthening exercise in chronic low back pain patients. J Back Musculoskelet Rehabil. 2015;28(4):699-707. doi: 10.3233/BMR-140572. PMID: 25467999.

Featured Image: MDV Edwards / Shutterstock