Reverse crunch

Technique of the exercise:

You are lying on your back, hips bent, you stretch your legs more or less vertically. Point your toes up.

In this position, you curl your lower back while raising your feet vertically towards the ceiling. Remember to breathe out during exercise, ideally through the mouth, with slightly pursed lips. This is the best way to intensify work and work optimally on your transversals.

Under no circumstances will there be any tilting back and forth.

Also remember to tuck in your stomach throughout the movement to exercise the transverse.

Muscles worked:
Main: abdominals (rectus, transverse)

By curling the lower back from the hip instead of the breastbone, the exercise localizes more work to the “lower abdominals.”

Interest of reverse crunch

If you are lacking a “lower” sit-up, this is the go-to exercise for working out your abs. If you would like to take a test to assess the strength of the lower abdominals… Click here!

Variants of reverse crunch

The difficulty of the exercise can be increased by bending the knees, but also by using an incline bench. And like most exercises, you will be able to vary the pace of the execution (change of pace).

Danger / contraindication 

Be careful to understand the movement. It’s all about curling up and not doing leg lifts.

If the technique is not followed, the hip flexors will do all the work and may cause back pain.