Decline Crunch

A crunch performed on a decline bench, increasing the range of motion and resistance on the abs.

Core · Bodyweight · Intermediate

Decline Crunch — start position, flat illustration — start

Decline Crunch — peak position, flat illustration — peak

Muscles worked by the Decline Crunch

Primary

AbsRectus Abdominis

Secondary

Hip FlexorsHip Flexor Muscles

ObliquesOblique Abdominals

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

Equipment

No equipment — this is a bodyweight exercise.

How to do the Decline Crunch

Secure your feet at the top of a decline bench.
Lie back with hands crossed on your chest or behind your head.
Crunch up by flexing your spine toward your knees.
Squeeze your abs at the top.
Lower under control and repeat.

Form tips

Curl your spine up rather than pulling on your neck.
Exhale as you crunch and squeeze the abs at the top.
Lower slowly instead of dropping back to the bench.

At a glance

Body part	Core
Category	Strength
Force type	Push
Mechanic	Isolation
Difficulty	Intermediate
Equipment	Bodyweight
Goals	Hypertrophy
Tags	Knee safe, Shoulder safe, No axial load, Lower back safe, Requires bench
MET	3.5 (metabolic equivalent, for calorie estimates)
Unilateral	No
Bodyweight	Yes
Dataset id	decline-crunch

Decline Crunch in German & Spanish

German	Negativbank-Crunch
Spanish	Crunch Declinado

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

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": "decline-crunch",
  "name_en": "Decline Crunch",
  "name_de": "Negativbank-Crunch",
  "name_es": "Crunch Declinado",
  "description_en": "A crunch performed on a decline bench, increasing the range of motion and resistance on the abs.",
  "description_de": "Ein Crunch auf der Negativbank, der Bewegungsumfang und Widerstand für die Bauchmuskeln erhöht.",
  "description_es": "Un crunch realizado en banco declinado, aumentando el rango de movimiento y la resistencia sobre los abdominales.",
  "category": "strength",
  "force_type": "push",
  "mechanic": "isolation",
  "difficulty": "intermediate",
  "body_part": "core",
  "primary_muscles": [
    "rectus_abdominis"
  ],
  "secondary_muscles": [
    "hip_flexors",
    "obliques"
  ],
  "goals": [
    "hypertrophy"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "knee_safe",
    "shoulder_safe",
    "no_axial_load",
    "lower_back_safe",
    "requires_bench"
  ],
  "variation_group": "crunch",
  "is_unilateral": false,
  "is_bodyweight": true,
  "instructions_en": [
    "Secure your feet at the top of a decline bench.",
    "Lie back with hands crossed on your chest or behind your head.",
    "Crunch up by flexing your spine toward your knees.",
    "Squeeze your abs at the top.",
    "Lower under control and repeat."
  ],
  "instructions_de": [
    "Sichere die Füße oben an der Negativbank.",
    "Leg dich zurück, Hände auf der Brust gekreuzt oder hinter dem Kopf.",
    "Crunch nach oben durch Beugen der Wirbelsäule zu den Knien.",
    "Spanne die Bauchmuskeln oben an.",
    "Kontrolliert absenken und wiederholen."
  ],
  "instructions_es": [
    "Asegura los pies en la parte superior del banco declinado.",
    "Recuéstate con las manos cruzadas sobre el pecho o detrás de la cabeza.",
    "Sube contrayendo la columna hacia las rodillas.",
    "Aprieta el abdomen en la posición superior.",
    "Baja de forma controlada y repite."
  ],
  "tips_en": [
    "Curl your spine up rather than pulling on your neck.",
    "Exhale as you crunch and squeeze the abs at the top.",
    "Lower slowly instead of dropping back to the bench."
  ],
  "tips_de": [
    "Rolle die Wirbelsäule ein, statt am Nacken zu ziehen.",
    "Atme beim Aufrollen aus und spanne die Bauchmuskeln oben fest an.",
    "Senke dich langsam ab, statt auf die Bank zurückzufallen."
  ],
  "tips_es": [
    "Enrolla la columna en lugar de tirar del cuello.",
    "Exhala al subir y aprieta los abdominales arriba.",
    "Baja despacio en lugar de dejarte caer sobre el banco."
  ],
  "met": 3.5,
  "images": {
    "flat": {
      "start": "images/flat/decline-crunch-start.webp",
      "peak": "images/flat/decline-crunch-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 === "decline-crunch");

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.