Machine Seated Crunch

An abdominal isolation exercise performed on a seated machine that flexes the spine against resistance.

Core · Ab Crunch Machine · Beginner

Machine Seated Crunch — start position, flat illustration — start

Machine Seated Crunch — peak position, flat illustration — peak

Muscles worked by the Machine Seated Crunch

Primary

AbsRectus Abdominis

Secondary

ObliquesOblique Abdominals

Deep CoreTransversus Abdominis

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

Equipment

Ab Crunch Machine

Also called: crunch machine, abdominal machine, seated ab machine, ab coaster.

How to do the Machine Seated Crunch

Sit in the abdominal crunch machine and grip the handles.
Position the chest pad against your upper body.
Contract your abs to crunch your torso forward and down.
Squeeze at the bottom of the movement.
Return to the starting position with control.
Repeat for the desired number of reps.

Form tips

Initiate the movement with your abs, not your arms.
Exhale as you crunch forward.
Avoid using momentum by rocking your body.

At a glance

Body part	Core
Category	Strength
Force type	Push
Mechanic	Isolation
Difficulty	Beginner
Equipment	Ab Crunch Machine
Goals	Hypertrophy
Tags	Lower back safe, Knee safe, Shoulder safe, No axial load
MET	5.0 (metabolic equivalent, for calorie estimates)
Unilateral	No
Bodyweight	No
Dataset id	machine-seated-crunch

Machine Seated Crunch in German & Spanish

German	Bauchmaschine sitzend
Spanish	Abdominales en Máquina Sentado

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": "machine-seated-crunch",
  "name_en": "Machine Seated Crunch",
  "name_de": "Bauchmaschine sitzend",
  "name_es": "Abdominales en Máquina Sentado",
  "description_en": "An abdominal isolation exercise performed on a seated machine that flexes the spine against resistance.",
  "description_de": "Eine Bauch-Isolationsübung an einer Sitzmaschine, bei der die Wirbelsäule gegen Widerstand gebeugt wird.",
  "description_es": "Un ejercicio de aislamiento abdominal en una máquina sentada que flexiona la columna contra resistencia.",
  "category": "strength",
  "force_type": "push",
  "mechanic": "isolation",
  "difficulty": "beginner",
  "equipment": "ab_crunch_machine",
  "body_part": "core",
  "primary_muscles": [
    "rectus_abdominis"
  ],
  "secondary_muscles": [
    "obliques",
    "transverse_abdominis"
  ],
  "goals": [
    "hypertrophy"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "lower_back_safe",
    "knee_safe",
    "shoulder_safe",
    "no_axial_load"
  ],
  "variation_group": "crunch",
  "is_unilateral": false,
  "is_bodyweight": false,
  "instructions_en": [
    "Sit in the abdominal crunch machine and grip the handles.",
    "Position the chest pad against your upper body.",
    "Contract your abs to crunch your torso forward and down.",
    "Squeeze at the bottom of the movement.",
    "Return to the starting position with control.",
    "Repeat for the desired number of reps."
  ],
  "instructions_de": [
    "Setze dich in die Bauchmaschine und greife die Griffe.",
    "Positioniere das Brustpolster am Oberkörper.",
    "Spanne die Bauchmuskulatur an, um den Oberkörper nach vorne unten zu beugen.",
    "Spanne am unteren Punkt der Bewegung an.",
    "Kehre kontrolliert zur Ausgangsposition zurück.",
    "Wiederhole für die gewünschte Anzahl an Wiederholungen."
  ],
  "instructions_es": [
    "Siéntate en la máquina de abdominales y sujeta las manijas.",
    "Coloca la almohadilla de pecho contra tu torso.",
    "Contrae el abdomen para flexionar el torso hacia adelante y abajo.",
    "Contrae al final del recorrido.",
    "Vuelve a la posición inicial con control.",
    "Repite el número de repeticiones deseado."
  ],
  "tips_en": [
    "Initiate the movement with your abs, not your arms.",
    "Exhale as you crunch forward.",
    "Avoid using momentum by rocking your body."
  ],
  "tips_de": [
    "Leite die Bewegung mit der Bauchmuskulatur ein, nicht mit den Armen.",
    "Atme aus, während du dich nach vorne beugst.",
    "Vermeide Schwung durch Wippen des Körpers."
  ],
  "tips_es": [
    "Inicia el movimiento con el abdomen, no con los brazos.",
    "Exhala mientras flexionas el torso.",
    "Evita el impulso balanceando el cuerpo."
  ],
  "met": 5.0,
  "images": {
    "flat": {
      "start": "images/flat/machine-seated-crunch-start.webp",
      "peak": "images/flat/machine-seated-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 === "machine-seated-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.