The crunch or curl-up is an abdominal exercise that works the rectus abdominis muscle. [1] It enables both building and defining "six-pack" abs and tightening the belly. Crunches use the exerciser's own body weight to tone muscle and are recommended by some experts[ like whom? ], despite negative research results[ citation needed ], as a low-cost exercise that can be performed at home. [2] Crunches are less effective than other exercises such as planks and carry risk of back injury. [3]
The biomechanics professor Stuart McGill was quoted in The New York Times Health blog as stating:
An approved crunch begins with you lying down, one knee bent, and hands positioned beneath your lower back for support. "Do not hollow your stomach or press your back against the floor", McGill says. Gently lift your head and shoulders, hold briefly and relax back down. [4]
Research has shown that both sit-ups and crunches are mediocre strength-building exercises and have injured many people. [3]
In a crunch, unlike a sit-up, the lower back stays on the floor. This is said to eliminate any involvement by the hip flexors, and make the crunch an effective isolation exercise for the abdominals. [5]
Sirous Ahmadi has the record of doing over 20000 crunches in under 5 hours on May 11, 2024. [6] [7]
In 2018, John Peterson from the US did 6,774 crunches in an hour and in 2021, he did a total of 13,994 crunches in two hours. [8] [9] [10]
Calisthenics or callisthenics is a form of strength training that utilizes an individual's body weight as resistance to perform multi-joint, compound movements with little or no equipment.
The push-up is a common calisthenics exercise beginning from the prone position. By raising and lowering the body using the arms, push-ups exercise the pectoral muscles, triceps, and anterior deltoids, with ancillary benefits to the rest of the deltoids, serratus anterior, coracobrachialis and the midsection as a whole. Push-ups are a basic exercise used in civilian athletic training or physical education and commonly in military physical training. They are also a common form of punishment used in the military, school sport, and some martial arts disciplines to humiliate and its absence of use for equipment. Variations of push-ups, such as wide-arm push-ups, diamond push-ups target specific muscle groups and provide further challenges.
The sit-up is an abdominal endurance training exercise to strengthen, tighten and tone the abdominal muscles. It is similar to a curl-up, but sit-ups have a fuller range of motion and condition additional muscles.
A squat is a strength exercise in which the trainee lowers their hips from a standing position and then stands back up. During the descent, the hip and knee joints flex while the ankle joint dorsiflexes; conversely the hip and knee joints extend and the ankle joint plantarflexes when standing up. Squats also help the hip muscles.
An exercise ball is a ball constructed of soft elastic, typically in 5 diameters of 10 cm increments, from 35 to 85 cm, and filled with air. The air pressure is changed by removing a valve stem and either filling with air or letting the ball deflate. It is most often used in physical therapy, athletic training and exercise. It can also be used for weight training.
The lying triceps extension, also known as skull crusher and French extension or French press, is a strength exercise used in many different forms of strength training. It is one of the most stimulating exercises to the entire triceps muscle group in the upper arm, and works the triceps from the elbow all the way to the latissimus dorsi. Due to its full use of the triceps muscle group, the lying triceps extensions are used by many as part of their training regimen.
Circuit training is a form of body conditioning that involves endurance training, resistance training, high-intensity aerobics, and exercises performed in a circuit, similar to high-intensity interval training. It targets strength building and muscular endurance. An exercise "circuit" is one completion of all set exercises in the program. When one circuit is completed, one begins the first exercise again for the next circuit. Traditionally, the time between exercises in circuit training is short and often with rapid movement to the next exercise.
Abdominal exercises are a type of strength exercise that affect the abdominal muscles. Human abdominal consist of four muscles which are the rectus abdomens, internal oblique, external oblique, and transversus abdominis. When performing abdominal exercises it is important to understand the effects, functions, the types of exercises, and think about how to perform this exercise safely.
The pull-down exercise is a strength training exercise designed to develop the latissimus dorsi muscle. It performs the functions of downward rotation and depression of the scapulae combined with adduction and extension of the shoulder joint.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to exercise:
Spot reduction refers to the claim that fat in a certain area of the body can be targeted for reduction through exercise of specific muscles in that desired area. For example, exercising the abdominal muscles in an effort to lose weight in or around one's midsection. Fitness coaches and medical professionals as well as physiologists consider the claim to be disproved.
The Roman chair is a piece of exercise equipment. It is mainly used for the lower back, but can also target the buttocks, hamstrings, and abdomen.
In kinesiology, core stability is a person's ability to stabilize their core. Stability, in this context, should be considered as an ability to control the position and movement of the core. Thus, if a person has greater core stability, they have a greater level of control over the position and movement of this area of their body. The body's core is frequently involved in aiding other movements of the body, such as running; thus it is known that improving core stability also improves a person's ability to perform these other movements.
The inverted row is an exercise in calisthenics. It primarily works the muscles of the upper back—the trapezius and latissimus dorsi—as well as the biceps as a secondary muscle group. The supine row is normally carried out in three to five sets, but repetitions depend on the type of training a lifter is using to make their required gains. This exercise is lighter on the joints compared to weighted rows. The exercise can also be performed with mixed, underhand, or overhand grips with either wide or narrow hand placement. The exercise is also known under various names such as supine row, bodyweight row, Australian pull up or "horizontal pull-up".
A power tower, also known as a knee raise station, and as a captain's chair, is a piece of exercise equipment that allows one to build upper body and abdominal muscle strength. When only the forearm pads alone are used for performing abdominal exercises, the power tower requires minimal arm strength as it is stable and movement occurs in the hips and torso. The equipment commonly has a backrest and forearm rests that form the chair, with vertical handles at the ends of the arm rests. The word "power" comes from the addition of other powerful arm exercises such as parallel horizontal handles for performing dips, a pull-up bar attached to the top for chin-ups and pull-ups, and push-up handles that are usually found on the bottom for Atlas ("deep") push-ups.
The burpee, a squat thrust with an additional stand between repetitions, is a full body exercise used in strength training. The movement itself is primarily an anaerobic exercise, but when done in succession over a longer period can be utilized as an aerobic exercise.
The plank is an isometric core strength exercise that involves maintaining a position similar to a push-up.
A jackknife is an abdominal exercise. This exercise is also known as a "V-Up". Jackknife exercises are designed to strengthen the upper and lower abdominal muscles, particularly the transversus abdominis muscle. There are a number of variations of jackknife exercises that allow people of different ages and ability to work their abdominal muscles. This exercise can be modified by using an exercise ball. The jackknife can be done by lying flat on your back with your arms extended overhead and your feet raised slightly above the floor. The jackknife is completed by slowly bringing your straight arms toward your hips, and lifting your upper torso off the floor.
Split weight training, also known as split routine, or split workout routine, is a type of exercise workout routine. It is a workout regimen where different muscle groups are targeted on separate days, rather than exercising the entire body in a single session. This type of training allows for focused work on each muscle group while providing appropriate recovery time between training on the same muscle. This type of training is mostly used by bodybuilders and fitness trainers, while professional lifters typically avoid this approach. It is the opposite of a full-body workout, where the entire body is targeted in a single session.
[McGill's] findings showed that sit-ups and crunches weren't just mediocre strength-building moves; they were actually hurting lots of people."
"In the past decade, every branch of the U.S. military has begun to phase out sit-ups and crunches from their required testing and training regimens, or else they have made them optional, alongside more orthopedically sound maneuvers such as the plank. Spokespeople for the Army and the Marines confirmed [...] that these decisions in their branches were made in part to avoid the high rates of lower-back injury found among troops training for speed sit-up and crunch tests."
"If you hadn't yet noticed crunches disappearing around you—or if you have a trainer who still puts you through your sit-up paces—McCall said he wouldn't exactly be shocked. Like many other American industries, the fitness business is consolidating, but it still contains tons of independent instructors and small businesses. Sit-ups and crunches have been discouraged by educators within the industry for years, but there are no licensing or continuing-education requirements for teaching exercise, and if trainers don't seek out new information and techniques, it can take a while for good information and new ideas to get through to them.
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