Bicycle Crunch

While many people are familiar with the basic crunch and have used it to increase core strength and reduce stomach fat, there are lots of other variations to choose from, and each one has a different set of core strengthening abilities. The Bicycle Crunch is one of these variations, and it’s often promoted as being one of the top exercises for the abs, due to the fact it engages the entire core.

In fact, it was one of the top scoring exercises in a recent San Diego State University study, which looked at thirteen different core training exercises. Researchers found that the Bicycle Crunch was a top scorer when it came to working the rectus abdominis, as well as the external obliques and internal obliques, which cause love handles if left unchecked. In the study, they measured the muscle activity by using a EMG machine.

You don’t need any props to do this exercise correctly, but you may want to use a workout mat to lie on so that you’re more comfortable. Other than that, once you’re suited up you lie on the floor with your lower back pressed against the floor and your hands behind or alongside your head. Then bring your knees into a 45 degree angle, lift your legs up off the floor and begin performing a bicycle like motion; it looks like your peddling, but there’s no bike.

Then you try to touch your right elbow with your left knee, and then switch off, making a crisscrossing motion. The knee trying to touch your elbow is bent, while the other leg is extended. It’s the crisscross motion in tangent with the total engagement of the core that works the rectus abdominis and the oblique muscles. It’s important to keep breathing smoothly through out the exercise cycle.

Like most other exercises, the Bicycle Crunch is to be done in reps and sets, and many experts suggest doing one to three sets, which can include any where from 15 to 50 reps. The amount done is contingent on your fitness levels. When it comes to toning and strengthening the core, exercise can go a long way toward pulling in the abs and enhancing definition, but it is said that using a stomach fat diet can also make seeing them and feeling them much easier.