What ab exercises are better than crunches?

Crunches can be great but the best way to lose ab fat is to incorporate ab exercises that work the entire body.

• Med ball diagonal wood chop
• Prone pull ins on the stability ball
• Single leg plank raises

Crunches use predominantly the rectus abdominus, which is the largest and most external of the abdominals. Exercises that factor in more of your body weight as well as the transverse abdominum and the obliques are more effective. For example, a forearm plank with alternating knees to elbow or a hanging knee lift with a twist.

Well we think ab exercises that you can do anytime are better than crunches (but doing crunches isn’t bad by any means).  Curious how to incorporate them into your day?

Sitting at your desk right now (or at least, sitting somewhere)? Sit up as straight as the Queen of England and suck your belly in.  Don’t forget to breathe, though. 

Want to try some chair crunches? Sit up straight, put your arms to your side, and grip the bottom of the chair.  Make sure your feet are flat on the floor and your knees are bent over the toes.  Press your legs together as if they were stuck together with Super Glue.  Now, lift your knees straight up, keeping the bottom of your feet parallel to the ground.  Exhale while you life your knees, and inhale as you bring your feet back down to the floor.  Do this 10-12 times. 

And believe it or not, moving your arms behind you might be better at making your trunk muscles contract than stomach exercises.  So give it a try: Stand with your back to a wall, arms at your sides. Turn one palm against the wall and push it into the wall (keep your arm straight). Hold for a few seconds, release, and repeat. 

I also like leg lifts.

A combination of exercises such as crunches that work the rectus abdominis, and exercises like Plank Hold's or Plank Hold's with movement are great to target deeper into the transverse abdominis. Try doing a Plank Hold with your forearm's on a stability ball and move your forearms forward and back for 5-10 repetitions while keeping your body straight.

Suspended crunches on the TRX are also great!

Oxygen Magazine has some great exercises for crunchless ab workouts. See link below:

http://www.oxygenmag.com/Training/Slideshows/Crunchless-Abs-Fast.aspx#slide-1

1. Pot Stir or Stability Ball Circles
2. Side Planks
3. McGill Ab Isometrics
4. Bird Dogs

To crunch or not to crunch? That is the question. The answer is NO! Crunches cause over 3300 N or around 730 lb pounds of compression on your spine! (That is just one crunch) Considering if someone was to do crunches, they do anywhere from 80-300, (you do the math) that is absolutely detrimental to your spine and its intervertebral discs (the spaces b/w the vertebrae that act as shock absorbers and make spaces for your spinal nerves to exit). Repeated crunches can ultimately lead to disc bulges, herniation and disc genic spondylitis. 

Try incorporating a stability ball into your ab workout. Planks are great exercises for your abdominals that cause below than normal stress onto your lumbar spine. Practicing "bracing" (preparing for someone to punch you in the stomach) is a good exercise to do before moving out of bed, picking a box up, bending over to open the dishwasher. This allows your core musculature to contract and help stabilize your spine and prepare itself for the load that you are about to administer on it. 

We first have to ask: What is your goal? The abs exercises you do will be selected based on what you are looking to accomplish. If fat loss is the goal then exercises including planks, bridges, and cable rotations are some of my favorites. 

Here is the Cable Rotation Exercise

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Another great way to incorporate abdominal exercises into your routine is to perform exercises on one leg. For example:

Single Leg Squat to Row

Keep your belly button drawn in and feel your core activate with this exercise! Also a great calorie burner! The more muscles groups you get involved the better, when it comes to weight loss or general fitness!