I could chew your ear off all day on why crunches suck for getting rid of your belly fat but today I’m going to give you my top 3 reasons why you are better off doing basically any other bodyweight workout exercise if you ever want to achieve fat loss results.
You will never see crunches in any of my Aussie Fatblast workouts and these 3 reasons will tell you why:
1) Crunches suck because they are not an intense exercise.
They only target one small area of your body – your abs – and the fast and surefire way to get rid of your belly fat is to train with exercises that use more than one muscle group at once. Unfortunately, crunches suck because they just don’t get the heart rate up high enough to benefit from the short, intense style of exercise that is essential for achieving fat loss results and the body that you deserve.
2) Crunches suck because they place too much strain on your lower back.
Let’s think about it for a minute. We’re all busy people who are reading this right? And we spend most of the day sitting on our backsides chained to a computer desk right?
Well guess what happens when you are seated – your spine is compressed and places a great deal of strain on your lower back. Especially if you slouch in your chair.
In fact, I had to stop myself as I was typing this because I was slouching (yeah I’m a terrible slouch when I’m not sitting on my fitball at my desk).
When you are performing crunches your spine is further compressed with every crunch that you take. Not exactly what your back needs after you have already been sitting down compressing your vertebrae now is it?
3) Crunches suck because they are boring.
They are dead and buried and there are so many more exciting home exercises workouts that you can do at home that are more fun and definitely more beneficial to getting rid of your belly fat.
Some of my favourite ab exercises are actually movements like a Decline Push Up or even an Up Down that utilise lots of muscles especially your abs.
If I had to name just one exercise that hits the abs effectively using only exercises for a bodyweight workout I’d have to say any variation of the Hover or Plank.
This is an old photo of me (I had a little bit more hair then so you can tell it’s dated!) doing some crunch n kicks with my legs up in the air. Repeated sets of this will lead to a bad back that’s for sure!
Needless to say I don’t do them anymore.
The reason I included this photo of me though is to prove to you that I have evolved. I used to believe that crunches were the way to get the abs in shape. Now I know that is so far wrong that it’s not funny.
If I can be wrong, it just goes to show that we’re all human. The big thing is that I learned from my errors. So long as we all do, we are learning and growing and more importantly firing your belly fat!
Me Screwing My Back Up In A Past Life
If you want more exercises that you can do using only your bodyweight for your home exercise program then you must come over and join me at my brand new site Home Workout Exercises.
This community site is FREE to join and you can get video demonstrations from myself and some of my other fitness pro mates from around the globe as well as the chance to hop on the forum and ask us your questions.
There is also a special launch bonus of a special teleseminar that I will be holding on Friday 19 June or Thursday 18 June if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere that is only available for members.
This is my answer to the recession – save your pennies from wasting a gym membership and sign up for free and get some great tips that can help you lose your belly fat for good.
see you over there
http://www.homeworkoutexercises.ning.com
So what do you think? Do crunches suck or am I off on another planet with my thoughts? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments section below. Let’s start some friendly banter!
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Hi Daniel
I am so with you about screwing up your back with crunches and how they don’t get rid of flab. If you do them in a different position tho, you will be able to access deeper abs which will help your back. If you curl up whilst keeping your pelvis in a neutral position, you will access your deeper TA which will help protect your back from injury if they are well toned. Keeping your pelvis in neutral for this type of exercise will help prevent the compression you so correctly mentioned with those crunches in your photo. That and your pelvic floooooorr
Of course no exercise gets rid of fat in a specific area. I’m always correcting this with my clients–no, you can’t get rid of the apres-baby fat by doing crunches ad nauseum… it’s about calories consumed and expended.
I also prefer planks and other (more full-body) exercises that hit core muscles, but for people that have been sedentary for an extended time, or new mothers who may be extremely weak in that area, more isolating ab and lower back exercises can be a good start to strengthening the core–and different ones work for different people. For some, elevating the legs is enough to take pressure off the back when doing crunches; crunches on a stability ball work for others.
@Dominique @Verna Thanks for your thoughts and comments girls. A crunch won’t kill you but I’d prefer other exercises for the abs especially for the people I train (busy people who sit in an office all day).
I think the tip about tilting the pelvis is great if you have one one one supervision and you can make sure everyone’s doing it right but in my groups I’d rather the safer option of a hover/plank variations.