Gym Shorts: Banded Ab Crunch

How To Banded Ab Crunch

Gym Shorts videos provide short video demonstrations of correct form for various exercises.

Follow these steps

• Standing banded ab crunch
  • Set up
    • Grip band with neutral grip (thumbs up)
    • Bring palms to temple (firmly hold hands against temple)
    • Elbows in & up
  • Execution
    • Crunch your abs – making shoulders get closer to the hips
    • Hold the crunch in the bottom
    • Big stretch at the top
    • Crunch down (don’t bend at waist)
    • Slow controlled pace (don’t rush the movement)
• Kneeling
  • Same set up – band will have more tension
  • Movement is the same (except on knees)
  • Flex your torso (don’t bend at the hips)

What Is the Banded Ab Crunch?

The banded ab crunch is an exercise that targets the abdominal muscles or “abs,” including the rectus abdominis, rectus abdominis, internal obliques, and external obliques.

It allows you train your abs without machines or doing countless reps on the ground. You simply need a rubber band.

It can be performed standing or kneeling.

Resistance can be increased by using a thicker band or grabbing higher on the band.

Programming

The squat, deadlift, and press train the abs isometrically, and just as we typically do not program accessory or even supplemental lifts until a lifter is an intermediate or advanced lifter, we do not prescribe exercises for the abdominal muscles until the lifter is more advanced.

These should be performed after the primary compound lifts are done. They may be performed as part of a circuit.

Perform for 2-5 sets of 5-20 reps. Don’t rush these.

Click HERE for our step-by-step tutorial on this exercise (the best abs exercise) and HERE to learn more about becoming a beefcake.