Bicycle Crunch
Trains the Abs and Obliques.
- Equipment
- Body only
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Lie on your back with your fingertips beside your ears and your legs lifted, knees bent to ninety degrees.
- Press your lower back gently toward the floor and brace your stomach.
- Curl your shoulder blades off the floor and hold them there for the whole set.
- Rotate your torso to bring one elbow toward the opposite knee while extending the other leg out straight.
- Switch sides in a controlled pedalling motion, rotating the ribcage each time rather than just moving the elbows.
- Keep the extended leg off the floor throughout, and stop the set when the lower back starts lifting.
Common mistakes
- Pedalling fast with the arms while the torso stays still. The rotation is the exercise; without it this is just moving your legs.
- Letting the lower back arch off the floor as the legs extend. Extend the leg only as far as the back stays down — higher is easier and it is the right regression.
- Yanking the head with the hands to reach the knee.
- Treating it as a light warm-up. Done slowly with a genuine rotation each repetition, it trains the obliques through their range as well as anything else on this list.