You probably see and hear it all the time. The key to six pack abs is doing crunches. I've read and heard on several occasions that crunches are a waste of time. When trying to achieve a flat stomach, some say that doing other forms of exercise is much more effective. Many of the workouts I follow still have crunches as part of the program. I don't mind doing them but maybe those who dislike doing them feel they are a waste of time.
Below are some reasons for why crunches may be a waste of time:
- You can't spot reduce
- Crunches do not burn belly fat
- Crunches build endurance, not muscle
- Crunches strain your neck and back
I am just after more opinions about the topic. If you feel they are a waste of time, please share your thoughts in the comments.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
In my opinion they are waste of time. I don’t do them at all, still developed my mini 6 pack. There is a lot of different abs exercises, more efficient and more plesaure.
In my opinion, they are a waste of time. Dr. Stuart McGill says crunches are a back injury waiting to happen. And I listen.
The moves proven to be successful (but not crunches) for developing abs:
A ball or ab-wheel roll out. Keeping your body firm, hands on a ball or wheel, roll out to the point where you lose form. (or parallel to the ground if your superhuman). Then roll back.
-hanging leg lifts.
-planks in their many variations.
I think that crunches, if properly executed, are a great way to burn belly fat. I was once told by a personal trainer that the key to good form for ab crunches is keeping your chin towards the ceiling, and it has worked well for me. I lost a lot of fat on my belly and never had any back problems whatsoever..
I’m not saying that they are a waste of time, just a waste of effort. Why spend so much time on ab workouts when you could burn more calories with back, leg, or full-body workouts? Besides, our abs get a workout with just about every other exercise anyway (push-ups, pull-ups, jump squats, etc., etc., etc.).
Since most men have the largest percentage of their fat sitting on their midsection, that is where most of their fat loss will be. Just pick exercises that burn the most calories. 95% of us don’t need to specifically work our abs, we just need to work out…
-Tourq
Yes, Tourq, I see your point and I agree.
I just wanted to give my own experience since a lot of people skip ab crunches completely, and I think that it’s a shame, cause they could benefit from integrating them into a proper cardio and weight-lifting workout!
Also I have seen that, at least for me, more sets with fewer reps tend to work better than fewer sets with more reps. I think it might be because form suffers when the body tires, with the excessive reps.
–Bob
You can put this up there as the No 1 fitness myth of all time. You would have to do a solid 20 – 30 minutes of non-stop crunches to generate enough of a calorie burn to impact the fat on your stomach. Then one piece of bread would wipe that calorie burn out. Want to lose fat from your stomach? Drop the carbs to no more than 40g a day.
Crunchs are a waste of time because there are a million better ways to work your core. Core workouts are not a waste of time because if you have a weak core you jeopardize the rest of your workout.
While exercises like squats and deadlifts and clean and presses are amazing… you can do so much better with those and get more out of them if you have a strong core.
I say do leg raises for a great core workout.
Ab crunchces are not a waste of time, they will develop muscle around the core, but they won’t burn fat. The problem is as you stated people think you can spot reduce which obviously isn’t the case, we all have six packs, just most of us don’t have the lower than 10-12% bodyfat needed to see them. So people need to concentrate on losing fat.
However abdominal exercises definately have their place for a much better core, stability, balance and generation of power, they are NOT anything to do with fat loss though, that’s the problem.
Okay, just to make things a little clearer, crunches definitely are no waist of time. They just are not the best way to hit the core in an effective and complete way. Here´s a number of great substitute exercises that are quite easy to do:
http://www.sports-db.com/exercise/lever_push_crunch
http://www.sports-db.com/exercise/bodyweight_reverse_crunch
http://www.sports-db.com/exercise/cable_seated_crunch
http://www.sports-db.com/exercise/barbell_roll_out
… just to name four.
However, as long as you keep sit ups and any other exercise that applies fixing your feet or flexing your hips away from your training routine, everything´s fine.
Another very effective way to train abs is doing all kinds of complex compound exercises like dead lifts, squats, push ups, etc. because here all core muscles serve as highly demanded stabilizers.
I don’t think it is fair to call the most basic exercise for the abdominal group a waste of time. Sure there are better exercises for developing core strength, and crunches are not an appropriate fat burning exercise. Crunches are safe when done properly, easy to learn, do not require any equipment and they can be modified for different levels of strength and fitness.
As with any exercise it all depends on the ultimate goal of working out to help decide the overall value of the exercise.
Exercise is great. No exercise is a waste of time, it just may not be the best choice.
I don’t think they are a waste of time. I find them to build ab muscle pretty well if you are doing them right. I would like to know more about them causing back problems though. I would be interested in trying other exercises if it is true.
Elliptical, staying away from sugar, full body workouts and planks gave me my six pack. No crunches needed.
@ Howard:
“I would like to know more about them causing back problems though.”
I have never heard of crunches, if done properly, to cause back problems. The only thing that I have heard, is that of the people who specifically target their abs, few of them also target their back muscles. So too many people become muscle imbalanced – their abs pull their back and shoulders forward, but their back doesn’t compensate.
Yeah! It is really a waste of time. It will take a lot of time to develop the 6 pack abs. There are a lot of exercise that gives faster development than crunches.
I think crunches are necessary as part of a complete workout, but shouldn’t be done in excess. They won’t give you a six-pack by themselves, I’ve tried! However, when doing crunches you are using calories, and as you start to lose fat to go larger stomache muscles will show better. If you’re going to do them it’s best to get some proper instruction so you learn to do them safely
Stephen.
I still make crunches a part of my workouts. I actually love to do weighted crunches because resistance will help to build up the muscle. I don’t do hundreds of them a day – not even close – and there are other ab exercises that I prefer doing. I think the main thing is making sure your back is strong (don’t neglect that and just work on abs) and that one has proper form. If you’re doing the crunch correctly, there shouldn’t be any strain on the neck.
I would be interested in learning more about them causing back pain, although I think a lot of back pain stems from doing exercises with improper form and by having a weak back in the first place.
Crunches do work but you have to incorporate them into your overall workout plan. If you were to do crunches and not do any cardio you would probably gain weight and get chubbie.
But the main thing is to do lots of cardio combine with ab crunches to get that full effect.
@Patrick: “If you were to do crunches and not do any cardio you would probably gain weight and get chubbie. ”
Please explain what you mean by this Patrick.
It is true that you cannot spot reduce and I explain this to my personal training clients constantly. With that said, crunches work part of your core musculature. If you do perform crunches on a regular basis, just make sure that you are balanced with low back exercises and rotational movements to name a few.
Nothing wrong with poor old, much maligned crunches in my view. All stomach exercises (pretty much) have some potential for a risk of back damage to a greater or lesser extent.
The way round this is to concentrate on what you are doing and listen to your body. Which, thankfully, is not too hard for most of us if we vary our routine and don’t get bored.
I use crunches and a lot of other exercises in a varied, short (ususally) daily abs session – no back trouble! 6 pack is in good shape and doesn’t take a lot of maintenance, but the overlying fat comes and goes more with the amount of overall activity, particularly aerobic (I run a bit). So, no, you can’t really spot reduce.
Incidentally, I don’t run an awful lot either. I am just into easy fitness for general well-being and social purposes rather than anything else. But I do want to look and feel as good as possible for my advanced age.