For a long time crunches were considered a fitness go-to.
I just assumed that if you wanted to work your midsection, you did crunches.
Entire workout videos were made around themremember8-Minute Abs?
FatCamera
But within the past decade, the fitness industry seems to have done a 180.
The trainers whose classes I take and fitness experts I interview rarely, if ever, recommend them.
Other core movementsplanks and their many variations, for exampleseem to have taken their place.
Crunches do involve some of your other abdominal muscles, like the obliques, but to a lesser extent.
Their main purpose is to work that rectus abdominis.
Heres what the research says on crunches.
Researchers have said that this shows a connection between spinal flexion and disc damage.
There are a few reasons.
For starters, you are not a pig.
Also, youre not dead.
Finally, youre probably not doing tens of thousands of crunches.
The pig spines studied were subjected to many thousands of flexion and extension cycles, Schoenfeld points out.
The review notes that the total times a spine was bent in each study ranged from 4,400 to 86,400.
Thats not the way we generally crunch," he says.
“I don’t know people who do 4,000 crunches.
But the literature should not be taken at face value and conclude that people should never do crunches.
Smith says that yes, spinal literature does suggest that loading the discs a certain amount could have benefits.
Too much [stress] is bad, but too little is also bad, Smith says.
So should we be doing crunches or not?
Schoenfeld says that deciding which exercises to do and not do really just comes down to goals.
If your goal is to get stronger all over, youd do heavy dead lifts, not speed work.
(Of course, not everyone has super-specific fitness goals.
Crunches are an effective exercise for that, according to all experts I talked to.
So if youre a bodybuilder or physique competitor, crunches may be an important part of your training regimen.
Also, if you have certain back problems or injuries, you may want to avoid crunches.
Having a strong core is critical for supporting your body through daily activities, workouts, and sports.
Plus, maintaining strength and stability can be helpful foravoiding lower-back pain and discomfort.
Thats because theyre notfunctionalmeaning, theyre not really applicable to movement patterns you do every day.
That way, youre not going to be overloading one area or causing an unstable pattern of movement.
Plus, it has crossover to whatever youre doing IRL or in the gym.
There are also a lot oftotal-body kettlebell moves that seriously work your core.
And basically every plank variation is a great option too.
If you need more ideas, thesecore exercises for back pain reliefare an excellent place to start.
Crunches are not a bad exercise if done properly, Smith says.
