Core Movement: Crunch Variation Video

Crunches are a perfect oblique workout. Learn how to add variations to your crunch exercises properly from a certified trainer in this workout video.

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Lay flat on back
Keep legs raised
Crunch upwards
Keep legs still

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Keith Irace has been a certified trainer for 16 years. He is currently the regional group fitness manager for Equinox Fitness Clubs in southern California and a trainer for iTRAIN.com is your own "Hollywood personal trainer right in your pocket." Each audio and video workout consists of an elite Hollywood Trainer or World Champion Athlete mixed with original music to satisfy your workout needs. iTRAIN provides more than 275 workouts in its library ranging from treadmill to elliptical, cycling, strength training, and many more.

Hi. I'm Keith Irace and welcome to Core Movement. Today's move is crunch variations. We're going to start by lying down on our back on our mats, and I want you to go ahead and take your feet up in the air. Now if you have longer, longer legs, or lower back issues, you can keep your knees slight soft. Otherwise, you can actually sort of stand on the ceiling here, right? Hands are behind the head, crunch, release. So I want you to keep your legs really still here. So the upper body moves, you can wrap your elbows around the side of the head and reach the elbows toward the outside of your knees, up and down. So the object is to press the belly into the floor but also to get as much of your back off the floor as you possibly can, and I'm going to show you a little trick to get a little extra oomph out of this exercise. It goes lift, reach, back to your head, and down. So we crunch, we lock the contraction, come back to the head, and down. Lift, really reach, head, and down. So on top of the movement with that reach, you give me a little 10% squeeze, right? Ten percent more, we lift, squeeze, head, and down. We lift, peak contraction as tight as you can squeeze those abs. Four more, four, peak, head, and down. Three more, three, reach, head, and down. Last two, two, reach, head. Last one, and one, reach, head, good. Now this variation I'm going to show you with your palms on the floor and then give you one option to make it tougher. You're going to lock your palms on the floor, carefully lower your legs to 45 degrees, pull them straight back up. Good. Now I want you to imagine that you're tightening a belt across your waist as you're pulling up, right? Now if you feel like you really want to kill it today, you can take it into a partial crunch and do the same move with your shoulder blades up. That's tough, down, squeeze, down, squeeze, two more, two more, down, squeeze. Last one gang, one and squeeze. Hug those knees and really nice work. Give yourself a nice long stretch for a second. Good. I'm Keith Irace. Thanks for joining us for Core Movement. Our move today was crunch variations. I'll see you next time.

Core Movement: Crunch Variation Video

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