Reverse Crunches

An abdominal exercise curling the hips off the floor to emphasize the lower portion of the abs.

Core · Bodyweight · Intermediate

Reverse Crunches — start position, flat illustration — start

Reverse Crunches — peak position, flat illustration — peak

Muscles worked by the Reverse Crunches

Primary

AbsRectus Abdominis

Secondary

Hip FlexorsHip Flexor Muscles

ObliquesOblique Abdominals

Deep CoreTransversus Abdominis

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

Equipment

No equipment — this is a bodyweight exercise.

How to do the Reverse Crunches

Lie on your back with your arms at your sides.
Raise your legs with knees bent to 90 degrees.
Curl your hips off the floor by contracting your lower abs.
Bring your knees toward your chest.
Lower your hips with control.
Repeat for the desired number of reps.

Form tips

Curl your pelvis rather than swinging your legs for momentum.
Exhale as your hips lift to deepen the abdominal contraction.
Press your arms into the floor for added stability.

At a glance

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

Reverse Crunches in German & Spanish

German	Reverse Crunches
Spanish	Crunches Inversos

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": "reverse-crunches",
  "name_en": "Reverse Crunches",
  "name_de": "Reverse Crunches",
  "name_es": "Crunches Inversos",
  "description_en": "An abdominal exercise curling the hips off the floor to emphasize the lower portion of the abs.",
  "description_de": "Eine Bauchübung in Rückenlage, bei der die Hüfte durch Anspannen der unteren Bauchmuskeln vom Boden abgehoben wird.",
  "description_es": "Un ejercicio de core en el suelo que enrolla la cadera hacia el pecho para trabajar la parte baja del abdomen.",
  "category": "strength",
  "force_type": "push",
  "mechanic": "isolation",
  "difficulty": "intermediate",
  "body_part": "core",
  "primary_muscles": [
    "rectus_abdominis"
  ],
  "secondary_muscles": [
    "hip_flexors",
    "obliques",
    "transverse_abdominis"
  ],
  "goals": [
    "hypertrophy"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "lower_back_safe",
    "knee_safe",
    "shoulder_safe",
    "no_axial_load"
  ],
  "variation_group": "crunch",
  "is_unilateral": false,
  "is_bodyweight": true,
  "instructions_en": [
    "Lie on your back with your arms at your sides.",
    "Raise your legs with knees bent to 90 degrees.",
    "Curl your hips off the floor by contracting your lower abs.",
    "Bring your knees toward your chest.",
    "Lower your hips with control.",
    "Repeat for the desired number of reps."
  ],
  "instructions_de": [
    "Lege dich auf den Rücken, Arme seitlich.",
    "Hebe die Beine mit 90 Grad gebeugten Knien an.",
    "Hebe die Hüfte durch Anspannen der unteren Bauchmuskeln vom Boden.",
    "Ziehe die Knie zur Brust.",
    "Senke die Hüfte kontrolliert.",
    "Wiederhole für die gewünschte Wiederholungszahl."
  ],
  "instructions_es": [
    "Túmbate boca arriba con los brazos a los lados.",
    "Eleva las piernas con las rodillas flexionadas a 90 grados.",
    "Despega las caderas del suelo contrayendo el abdomen inferior.",
    "Lleva las rodillas hacia el pecho.",
    "Baja las caderas con control.",
    "Repite el número deseado de repeticiones."
  ],
  "tips_en": [
    "Curl your pelvis rather than swinging your legs for momentum.",
    "Exhale as your hips lift to deepen the abdominal contraction.",
    "Press your arms into the floor for added stability."
  ],
  "tips_de": [
    "Atme aus, während du die Hüfte einrollst.",
    "Vermeide Schwung aus den Beinen, die Bauchmuskeln leiten die Bewegung ein.",
    "Halte die Bauchspannung auch beim Absenken der Hüfte."
  ],
  "tips_es": [
    "Despega la cadera con el abdomen, no con impulso de las piernas.",
    "Exhala al subir para activar mejor el abdomen.",
    "Presiona los brazos contra el suelo para mayor estabilidad."
  ],
  "met": 3.5,
  "images": {
    "flat": {
      "start": "images/flat/reverse-crunches-start.webp",
      "peak": "images/flat/reverse-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 === "reverse-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.