Weighted Crunch
Trains the Abs.
- Equipment
- A medicine ball or a weight plate
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Hold a medicine ball or plate against your chest, or extended overhead if you want it harder.
- Press your lower back into the floor and hold it there.
- Curl your shoulders and upper back off the floor.
- Stop where the lower back begins to lift, then hold briefly.
- Lower under control until the shoulder blades touch down.
Common mistakes
- Holding the weight overhead before the chest-held version is easy. Moving the load further from the hips makes the lever longer, which is the progression — not a starting point.
- Trying to sit all the way up. Once the lower back leaves the floor it is a sit-up and the hip flexors take over; a crunch is deliberately short.
- Throwing the weight forward to start the curl. A dead stop is what keeps a light load hard.
- Adding weight instead of range. The distance between ribs and hips is short, and a heavier load that halves it trains less rather than more.