To avoid straining your neck do not fully support your head in your hands.
Floor crunches with weight.
Take a 15 sec break between sets.
A standing dumbbell side bend is an effective alternative.
Start with the crunch i and or the crunch ii.
Your knees and feet should be about hip width apart.
Starting position lie on a floor mat or on the floor with your feet on the ground approximately hip width apart your back flat and your elbows bent with fingers just cupping your head on each side.
Shift weight to right foot and contract left side of torso lifting left knee out to side.
The weighted suitcase crunch is a weighted version of a popular abdominal training exercise.
Your abs exercise routine shouldn t consist of crunches alone but they can be beneficial to include in your workout if you perform them correctly.
At the same time bend left arm and pull elbow to left thigh.
Hold the weight against your chest and lie on your back.
Position your feet.
Grab a dumbbell or weighted plate and sit on the floor.
The simple addition of a weight makes the suitcase crunch far more difficult helping build the six pack muscles and providing a different stimulus to the core during training.
Using a mat thick towel or carpeted surface is more comfortable than lying on a hard bare floor 1 x research source to broaden your workout and engage your entire core you could also do crunches on a stability ball 2 x research source for more resistance you can try doing crunches on a declined exercise bench step 2 bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor.
Extend arm and leg back to start but tap.
If you still feel neck pain after making adjustments to your technique or you want to mitigate the risk of hurting yourself altogether consider swapping crunches which target only the rectus abdominis muscle for other exercises that.
Follow this progression to work your way up to the more challenging crunches we discuss today.
Doing crunches while holding a barbell a weighted bag or a medicine ball can indeed make the muscles of your abdomen grow which could cause you to add some width to your waist measurement.
How to do standing crunches with weights.
Lift your arms off the floor and extend your legs out.
Do 2 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
Bend your knees at a 90 degree angle and keep your feet firmly planted on the.