Stop Doing Crunches With Your Clients
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By Sal | December 2, 2009
A study published in the October 2009 edition of the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research offers proof for what many strength and fitness professionals have known for years; crunches don’t work. Researchers from Youngstown State University in Ohio determined that, “Performing abdominal exercises 3 or 6 times per week did not improve either concentric or eccentric strength. These results suggest that the exercises used during this study were not enough of a stimulus to significantly improve concentric or eccentric strength in either group. In addition, there were no significant decreases in waist circumference, body mass index or body fat during the 11 week study.”
The subjects followed a routine based on NSCA guidelines performing 3 sets of 20 repetitions of each exercise with 30 seconds of rest between each set. The 71 subjects were split into 2 groups that performed the exercises either 3 days or 6 days per week.
To be clear, the results of this study show that crunches do not increase abdominal strength, decrease the waist line, body mass index or body fat. Crunches , and their many popular variations, have absolutely no functional value and won’t give anyone a six-pack. In general, this study says that crunches stink.
So stop having clients do bent-leg crunches, straight-leg crunches, the bicycle maneuver, elevated leg crunches, vertical leg curl ups (legs straight up with hips at 90 degree angle), long-arm crunches (with arms straight along side of body moving forward with crunch motion), and crunches with legs straight and six-inches of the floor.
There is no excuse to not be aware of this fact. So stop wasting your clients’ time and effort by having them perform exercises that don’t offer any benefits.
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Topics: Personal Trainer Coaching, Training Style | 1 Comment »
One Response to “Stop Doing Crunches With Your Clients”
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9:55 pm on December 8th, 2009
I have been a no crunch and no sit up trainer for a long time and actually do not normally have my students do abdominal specific work at all,if they want core work I have them do planks, side planks, hip lifts and reverse planks. Since i advocate total body and compound workouts based on body weight exercises, resistance bands or free weights I see no need for core specific work.