How To Do Crunches At Home? – Types, Pain During Crunches Why?

Crunches At Home – Crunches is one of the wonderful exercises for your core. Crunches is that type of workout which you can do anywhere. And crunches is that workout which majorly targets your core muscles. Like other workouts Crunches also divided into Beginner, Mediate, Advance. In the Beginner and mediate level crunches you did not need any type of extra equipment and at the advance level, crunches you need some extra weights.

Muscles Involved During Crunches

Crunches engage all the abdominal muscles but primarily it works the rectus abdominis muscle and the obliques.

Crunches At Home

• First, Expand your mat on the floor and laid down on the mat. If it is possible then do this exercise in a open place(Like Park, Rooftop).
• After this, perform a Good warm-up of the body.

1. Beginners Crunches

Muscle Working:- The rectus abdominis

• Lie down on the floor and put your both hands on the X position touches opposite shoulder blades.
• After this tight your core and lift your shoulders blades + upper chest to make an angle 45 degrees to the floor.
• Then slowly come down on the floor again and then do another repetition.

#Note – You must always start your crunches workout with this exercise. To make this exercise an advance level you can add more repetitions and slow down your pace.

2. Side Crunches

Muscle Working:-  Internal and External obliques, Side muscles

• Lay on the floor By bending both of your knees.
• Simply raise your shoulders blade little bit and then put both hands near both buttocks
• After this, extract your right hand and try to touch the right toe and come in the original position.
• Then do with another (left hand) and come in the original position.
• Repeat this for more repetitions.

#Note – This exercise generally helps you remove your side fat and grow your side abs. To make this exercise an advanced level you can add more repetitions and slow down your pace.

3. Leg Crunches

Muscle Working:- The rectus abdominis, External Obliques

• Lay down on the floor in the crunch position{Bending knees of the legs}.
• After this raise your both legs and bring your knees over your hips.{Original Position}
• Then Lift your hips and lower back off of the floor/mat.
• Then hold for a second, and lower down your both legs slowly.

#Note – In the beginning stage you may need to take the help of another person. and there are many beginners who do many mistakes during the workout, Be careful! Mistakes during Crunches may cause serious injuries in the back. For the advanced-level leg crunches, you may put some weight on the legs.

4. V Crunch

Muscle Working:- Abdominal Muscles and many other small muscles

• Simply Lay down on the floor with back by joining both legs and both hands(Above the head).
• After this lift your both legs and hands in the air straight and touches to each other in the air.
• After touching hold of 2-3 seconds in the air then come down in the original position.
• Repeat this for more repetitions.

#Note – If you are a beginner then you may face problems in shaking hands and feet. If you are unable to join hands and feet, then you should try this exercise in your regular schedule. In 4-5 attempts you may do this exercise properly. For the advanced level V crunches,  you may hold your body in the air for more time.

These are the best 4 types of crunches that you can do at home easily. There are many articles and videos that recommend 10-12 types of crunches But for gaining all benefits of the crunches these 4 types of crunches are sufficient. These all are the best types of crunches that are suitable for every type of person.

How You Can Take Maximum Benefits Of Crunches?

You can gain maximum benefits of the crunches by increasing the difficulty level of the exercise. And the ways of increasing difficulty level are –

• By Holding:– In the last step of every type of crunches, you hold your body. If you will increase the holding time, your difficulty level also increases.
• By Speed:- Speed ​​in crunches workout also determines your difficulty level. The difficulty level increases as you decrease the speed of the workout.
• By Increasing Sets:– If you want to make it more difficult then do more repetitions and more sets.

If you will apply these factors/Points on your crunches workout then you surely gain maximum benefits of crunches. But if you are a beginner then you should avoid these points. In the initial phase, you should focus on the right steps of the workout, and the basic strength of the body.

For motivation, you can read the amazing results/Transformations that come only by doing crunches.

Read It:-

Crunches Before And After {Results With Pictures}

Pain During Crunches Why & How you can Get Relief?

During Crunches, you may experience pain generally in 2 parts of the body, the neck, and in your core.

In Case of neck

If you are facing pain after crunches in your neck then it shows that you are not doing crunches in a right way. Your upper back position, neck position is not right during crunches workout.

For getting relief from this pain do rest for 1-2 days and after this do all Crunches workout in the right form.

In the case of the Core pain

The process of pain after exercise is also called delayed onset muscle soreness (Doms). Due to this, the pain in the abdominal muscle occurs. The damaging or creation of micro-tears in your muscle tissue causes soreness and pain.

This is completely temporary pain but if you are facing pain and soreness more than 2-3 days then you must take doctor’s advice. Sometimes People may cause long-term pain & soreness by doing mistakes during Crunches workout.

Some Important FAQ

Question – Are Crunches enough to decrease belly fat? 

Answer – Yes, If you are taking a good fat loss diet then crunches is enough to decrease your belly fat. For the fast results, you can add some alternatives of the crunches in the workout schedule.

Question – Are Crunches enough to form abs?

Answer – In my point of view, In the formation of abs, Crunches workout is not enough. You need to add some other core workouts with crunches.

The Best Alternatives of the Crunches Workout are –

1. Planks
2. Mountain climbers
3. Kickboxing mountain climbers
4. Leg lifts
5. Scissor leg raises
6. Pull down Cable crunch (if you have a home gym or gym membership)

Before ending the article, you should know about some Pros And Cons of the Crunches Workout.

Pros & Cons Of Crunches

Pros

• Good For your core in strength/fat loss/Abs Formation
• Beginner-friendly
• You can do this at home or at the gym

Cons 

• You can do this workout only with empty stomach
• May risky for your back and neck
• Painful

Final Words

If you are searching for an amazing core workout then you can choose crunches as a primary workout. Keep the following tips of the crunches workout in mind as you perform this exercise. I hope you will gain Amazing results from Crunches.

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