Machine Crunch

How to do it

1. Sit in the machine and hook your arms over the pads or grip the handles.
2. Set the seat so the pivot is at your waist.
3. Crunch forward by rounding your upper back, not by folding at the hips.
4. Squeeze at the bottom, then return under control.
5. The machine lets you load abs progressively, which bodyweight crunches cannot.

Muscles it trains

Percent of one session's target for that muscle. Anything at 100% finishes that muscle on its own.

Other ways to train this

• Twisting Hanging Knee Raises Pull-up barIntermediate
• Cable Crunch Cable machine
• Hanging Leg Raises Pull-up barProfessional
• Russian Twist Dumbbells
• Cable Woodchop Cable machine
• Plank Bodyweight
• Ab Wheel Rollout Ab wheelProfessional
• Crunches Bodyweight
• Lying Leg Raises Bodyweight
• Decline Sit-Ups BodyweightBench
• Bicycle Crunches Bodyweight
• Side Plank Bodyweight

Photos and form cues from free-exercise-db, released into the public domain.