I've been reading more and more on the internet about how crunches and sit-ups are evil, and anyone who does them will ruin his back and a host of other bullshit stories like that. Like most things on the internet, there is a tiny sliver of truth watered down by loads of misinformation and fraudulent sales pitches for “The Holy Grail of Diet Pills” or things of the like. The truth is that doing any form of abdominal work will be beneficial for most people. As with any movement, you have to consider the pros and cons before you add it into your program. You also need to perform the movement correctly if you want to see benefits and avoid complications.

I did some research to try to find a link between doing movements like crunches and sit-ups and people developing a back problem because of it. What I found were a few studies that used the words “can” and “may” a lot in phrases like “doing crunches improperly may lead to back problems later in life,” which, in the science world, is basically the same as saying “your guess is as good as mine.” People take these studies too literally and abandon ship prematurely. God forbid they paraphrase a study in Muscle and Fitness or some other publication that could care less about scientific accuracy.

Healthy adults, adolescents, and beginner lifters and athletes in the weight room shouldn't have any problems doing good old-fashioned crunches. Adolescents don't really have the core development to hold a plank for much longer than ten seconds, so crunches are really the only practical option here. For novice lifters like adolescents, the core will be one of your biggest limiting factors. Everyone has to start somewhere, and it’s better to start with something that you can do rather than try to use an abdominal wheel and immediately fall on your face. It's all about completing reps, not attempting reps.

However, crunches aren't for everyone. Women with osteoporosis, the elderly, and people with a history of low back pain should probably stay away from movements with excessive lumbar flexion, like sit-ups and crunches. This is probably common knowledge for most of you, and I’m assuming that there aren’t too many women with osteoporosis out there reading elitefts™ articles.

If we look at the function of the abdominals, we know that they are mostly responsible for extending and stabilizing the spine. If we look at the action of doing a sit-up, we can see that the action of the abdominals is spinal flexion. So common sense would tell us that this movement isn't an ideal use of your abs. If you want pure trunk stabilization, the best abdominal exercise is a plank. If you want spinal extension, you could do abdominal roll outs.

In my book, the benefits of doing crunches far outweigh the drawbacks. From a coaching standpoint, it's much more practical to start athletes out with a simple crunch and then later progress them into more complex exercises. You also don’t need any extra equipment like the crap you see on those infomercials at 3:00 a.m. As for those who are still hung up on the potential for spinal damage, think about the reasons why people get low back pain. Most of the time, it's due to the fact that their abdominals are so weak and underdeveloped that their spinal erectors have to do the lion’s share of the work keeping them upright. This leads to overuse injuries and, you guessed it, low back pain. So if you keep your abs strong to begin with, you’ll reduce your chances of suffering from low back pain.

Here's a tip—stretch your hip flexors before doing any sort of crunching exercise. This will lengthen and weaken the muscles prior to exercise so that they won't dominate the movement like they do for many people. This will help you get more out of your abdominal workouts.

As lifters, we struggle to understand that the reason many people don’t train is because they're intimidated when they step into the gym. It’s the old “you have to be in shape to go to the gym” excuse. That is the single biggest barrier to entry for the general population—intimidation. If they browse the web and see all this stuff bashing the one exercise that they can execute with any degree of efficiency, they’re immediately going to get scared off. If we stick to educating instead of intimidating, we may reduce the barrier to entry for the general population.

The biggest reason why I see people hurt themselves doing crunches is because they aren't doing them. Someone will tell me that he doesn't want to do crunches because it hurts his neck or back. Then I ask him to show me how he does a crunch and, to put it nicely, it looks like shit. The whole movement is too violent, and there is a lot of neck jerking going on. There are times when you want to be explosive as athletes and times when it’s counterproductive. This is the latter.

You're focusing on methodic, controlled muscle contractions. The three cues I give my athletes for crunches are:

  • Eyes at the ceiling
  • Chin up
  • Hold your ears

This video will also explain things:

I recommend that everyone try the vacuum exercise, the one made famous by Arnold himself. In doing the vacuum, you're teaching yourself how to create more intra-abdominal pressure, which is essentially like using a weight belt. When you get your abs stronger without the weight belt, you'll be that much better with the belt.

Core training is a big part of my programming, and it should be for everyone who wants to be as strong as possible. Conservatively, I probably get in about 1,200 reps per week of some sort of abdominal work. For lifters and athletes who are struggling with their squat, the first thing I ask is what they're doing for their core. The answer I get is usually, “Umm,” or “I don’t know.” Your core is one of the most important factors in achieving a huge squat. Who cares how strong your legs are if your body can’t support the weight on your back?!

My personal routine is always done at the end of the training session. It takes about fifteen to twenty minutes and consists of a few staples with some variations thrown in.

  • Ab roll outs, 4 X 20

  • Ins and outs, 3 X 20

  • Plate behind the head crunches, 45 lbs X 2 X 20
  • Rocky IVs (aka dragon flags), 3 X 10

  • Russian twists, 25–45 lbs X 2 X 60 (30 each side)
  • Planks until failure (usually around five minutes or weighted for two minutes)

This is just what works for me. Sometimes I’ll do more or less depending on how I feel. Post your abdominal routine below and bounce some ideas off each other. Try new things and teach new people.