If your neck and shoulder muscles hurt after completing crunches, check your form. Crunches don't involve your head and shoulders if you're doing them properly: The crunch focuses on your abdominal muscles. While they are effective for helping strengthen your abs, workouts that hurt are likely to stop you from exercising. Use correct form or try a variation that minimizes the chances you'll hurt your neck.
Correct Form
The goal of a basic crunch is to isolate the rectus abdominis muscle, the large muscles that run from the breastbone to your pelvis on both sides of your abdomen. When crunching, your goal is to activate these muscles without engaging your hip flexors, the muscles that help move the thigh forward.
Crunches require you to lie flat on a supportive mat. To disengage your hip flexors, place your feet flat on a wall or rest them on a bench so your knees are directly above your hips and bent at 90 degrees. Rest your head on your fingertips. Pull in your abdomen to press your spine to the mat and lift your head and shoulder blades off the ground to a 30- to 45-degree angle.
What to Avoid
Don't pull on your head or hunch your shoulders as you lift. The goal is not to go as high as possible; the goal is to engage your abdomen. Hunching your shoulders can strain them and forces your neck too far forward. Touch your fingertips lightly to your head; don't link your hands behind your head because this also leads to forcing the crunch. Focus on the muscle that you are working and feel it pulling you up. Stop when you are fatigued. Continuing when overly fatigued leads to poor form and potential muscle strain.
Variation
If you are prone to pulling on your head, don't hold your hands behind your head. Instead, cross them over your chest, with each hand on the opposing shoulder. This variation not only prevents neck and shoulder strain, but also cuts back on the weight you are lifting with your abdomen. If you're just starting a crunch routine, focus on this variation. Move to hands above your head as you gain strength.
Devices
Roller and rocker devices that claim to remove the potential for neck and shoulder strain do not enable as much muscle activation as a normal crunch, according to a study published in the February 2002 edition of the "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research." The study — which compared rolling and rocking devices with a normal crunch — used kinematic analysis to look at how the body worked using these devices. It revealed that these devices do not allow the same range of motion as a crunch, making them less effective than a crunch completed with proper form.
References
- ExRx.net: Rectus Abdominis
- ExRx.net: Iliopsoas
- University of New Mexico; SuperAbs Resource Manual; Len Kravitz, Ph.D.
- MayoClinic.com; Ab Patrol: How to Do a Proper Crunch; November 2009
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; A Kinematic Comparison of Four Abdominal Training Devices and a Traditional Abdominal Crunch; Sands, et al.; February 2002
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