Seated Cable Crunch
Trains the Abs.
- Equipment
- A cable station and either a flat bench or an adjustable bench
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Set a rope on a high pulley and sit on a bench facing away from the machine.
- Take an end in each hand and bring your hands beside your head.
- Sit tall with your feet flat and your hips fixed.
- Curl your ribs down toward your hips, rounding the upper back.
- Stop where the trunk stops flexing and hold briefly.
- Return under control to upright without letting the stack drop.
Common mistakes
- Folding at the hips rather than curling the spine. Bowing forward with a straight back is a hip movement the cable will let you do at any weight; the ribs travelling toward the hips is the exercise.
- Pulling with the arms. The hands stay beside the head and the rope comes down because the trunk did.
- Letting the hips slide back on the bench. The hips are the anchor; if they move, the range comes from somewhere other than the abdominal wall.
- Sitting where the cable pulls you off the bench. Far enough from the pulley that the line runs down your back rather than lifting you is part of the setup.