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Anonymous
pre-stretch crunch (2) -- Therefore, doing a full ROM with crunches is important, but its virtually impossible without this modification.
Take a broom stick or barbell without weights on it, and wrap a towel around it very tightly. After this, take another towel, fold it up many times, and lay it on top of the stick with the towel around it. Now lay back on this make-shift pad. It should be pressing at the top of your lumbar spine, just below rib-level. You should see how much farther apart your ribs and pelvis will be from each other. In this stretched position, try doing a crunch. As you do so, think of how you're pulling your ribs towards your pelvis through a 100% greater ROM. Now you're getting stronger throughout every part of the flexion, increasing your stroke volume and TUT for each rep, and increasing the general effectiveness of each rep. There is no reason to do any other kind of crunch!
If you find your hips coming off the floor when you crunch upwards, move the pad a little upwards on your back. If your shoulders have trouble resting comfortably on the floor, move the pad a little downwards. If you feel like you could be stretched a little more, add some padding. If you've been doing regular crunches until now, you should find it extremely difficult to do more than a few of these, as you have not been exercising through this new ROM, and will be weak through it. If the movement ever gets too easy, and you can do more than 15 reps, try holding your hands directly above your head. Clasp your hands over your headso that your left hand is on the right side, your right hand is on the left side, and they're clasped together. This should trap your head between your biceps, giving you support. Like this - and without swinging your arms up to help - try to squeeze out 15 reps. If you can, try holding a weight over the top of your head (not in front of your face), and come up without swinging it forward.
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