How to do the Crunch
Step by step
- Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat, hands lightly behind your head or across your chest.
- Press your low back gently into the floor and tuck your chin a touch.
- Curl your shoulder blades a few inches off the floor by squeezing your abs.
- Pause at the top, then lower slowly until your shoulders touch down again.
The thing people get wrong
It is a short curl of the upper spine, not a full sit-up - keep your low back on the floor and do not pull on your neck.
Coaching cue
Breathe out as you curl and pause a beat at the top before lowering.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Cross your arms over your chest and curl a smaller range.
- Harder: Reach your arms overhead as you curl, or hold a weight on your chest.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Core
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.