Thursday, June 12, 2008

Day 84, Circle Crunch


Damn, I love this crunch. I don't know how it escaped my attention until now. Usually we just isolate the rectus abdominus muscle with regular crunches, or the obliques with side crunches. This one hits both in a fun way.

Lie on your back, hands lightly touching the ears. Lift the shoulders slightly and instead of crunching up, rotate the torso to the left and up in a circular shape. Go all the way around until you're down on the opposite side. From here you can keep going in the same direction for a few more reps, or, stop and go in the opposite direction, which is pretty hard.



One of the hardest things about abs work is keeping it fresh. Not just to alleviate boredom, but to find new ways to stimulate those muscles that get too good at the usual exercises.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will have to try this.

The worst thing about abs for me is that almost all the time, I feel like these are the results I get: 75% strained neck, 25% ab workout. It can really frustrate me at times.

Patrick said...

It's a little hard to explain, but you need to keep your neck almost stuck in place, as if you were wearing one of those neck brace things. Then, using the abs, move the whole torso, neck and head included, as one unit. Look up at the ceiling the whole time, that will encourage good form.

But at first a little neck pain can't be helped. If you stick with it for a week though it will dissipate.