Crunches

Muscles worked by the Crunches

Primary

AbsRectus Abdominis

Secondary

ObliquesOblique Abdominals

Also called: abs, six-pack, rectus abdominis, abdominals, stomach muscles.

Equipment

No equipment — this is a bodyweight exercise.

How to do the Crunches

1. Lie on your back with knees bent and hands behind your head.
2. Curl your upper body toward your knees, lifting your shoulder blades off the floor.
3. Squeeze your abs at the top.
4. Lower with control.
5. Repeat.

Form tips

• Avoid pulling on your neck with your hands.
• Exhale as you curl up and inhale on the way down.
• Keep your lower back pressed into the floor throughout.

At a glance

Crunches in German & Spanish

Descriptions, instructions and tips ship in all three languages in the JSON.

Related exercises

• Bicycle Crunch
• Cable Crunch
• Dead Bug
• Decline Crunch
• Dragon Flag
• Kettlebell Russian Twist
• Machine Seated Crunch
• Russian Twist

Exercise data (JSON)

The record below is exactly what exercises.json ships for this exercise — names, descriptions, instructions and tips in English, German and Spanish.

{
  "id": "crunches",
  "name_en": "Crunches",
  "name_de": "Crunches",
  "name_es": "Crunches",
  "description_en": "A basic abdominal exercise focusing on the rectus abdominis.",
  "description_de": "Eine grundlegende Bauchübung mit Fokus auf den geraden Bauchmuskel.",
  "description_es": "Un ejercicio abdominal básico enfocado en el recto abdominal.",
  "category": "strength",
  "force_type": "pull",
  "mechanic": "isolation",
  "difficulty": "beginner",
  "body_part": "core",
  "primary_muscles": [
    "rectus_abdominis"
  ],
  "secondary_muscles": [
    "obliques"
  ],
  "goals": [
    "hypertrophy"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "core",
    "knee_safe",
    "shoulder_safe",
    "no_axial_load",
    "lower_back_safe"
  ],
  "variation_group": "crunch",
  "is_unilateral": false,
  "is_bodyweight": true,
  "instructions_en": [
    "Lie on your back with knees bent and hands behind your head.",
    "Curl your upper body toward your knees, lifting your shoulder blades off the floor.",
    "Squeeze your abs at the top.",
    "Lower with control.",
    "Repeat."
  ],
  "instructions_de": [
    "Leg dich auf den Rücken, Knie gebeugt, Hände hinter dem Kopf.",
    "Rolle den Oberkörper zu den Knien, hebe die Schulterblätter vom Boden.",
    "Spanne die Bauchmuskulatur oben an.",
    "Kontrolliert absenken.",
    "Wiederholen."
  ],
  "instructions_es": [
    "Túmbate boca arriba con las rodillas dobladas y las manos detrás de la cabeza.",
    "Enrolla el tronco superior hacia las rodillas levantando los omóplatos del suelo.",
    "Aprieta el abdomen en la posición superior.",
    "Baja con control.",
    "Repite."
  ],
  "tips_en": [
    "Avoid pulling on your neck with your hands.",
    "Exhale as you curl up and inhale on the way down.",
    "Keep your lower back pressed into the floor throughout."
  ],
  "tips_de": [
    "Zieh nicht mit den Händen am Nacken.",
    "Halte den unteren Rücken während der gesamten Bewegung am Boden.",
    "Atme beim Aufrollen aktiv aus, das verstärkt die Bauchspannung."
  ],
  "tips_es": [
    "No tires del cuello con las manos al subir.",
    "Exhala al subir y mantén la zona lumbar pegada al suelo.",
    "Piensa en acercar las costillas a la pelvis, no en sentarte."
  ],
  "met": 3.5,
  "images": {
    "flat": {
      "start": "images/flat/crunches-start.webp",
      "peak": "images/flat/crunches-peak.webp"
    }
  }
}

Fetch just this exercise

const { exercises } = await fetch(
  "https://exercise-dataset.com/exercises.json"
).then(r => r.json());
const ex = exercises.find(e => e.id === "crunches");

Free for personal and commercial in-app use with attribution (“Exercise data by RepDB”) — see the license and ready-made attribution snippets. Redistributing the data as a dataset or API is not permitted.