Physical Fitness: Crunches

Having well-defined abs is important in today's society. There is a lot of attention in the media placed on how someone looks and having a defined midsection is very attractive. More importantly, your abdominal muscles provide support to your back. The abdomen helps to correct posture, which in turn relieves stress on the back.

Exercising the abdomen is difficult. There are a lot of equiptment and videos sold that try to get you motivated to work that area. In the end there are three main ingredients to defined abs: cardio, stomach exercises, and diet. You have to burn off fat covering your stomach muscles with cardiovascular exercises like running or swimming. Then, stomach exercises strengthen and develop abdominal muscles. Finally, a low fat diet will help remove fat as well from the midsection.

Luckily, the stomach is one of the only muscle groups that you can exercise every day. I currently do 400 crunches and 200 leglifts every day. I have 33 weeks straight of doing crunches. Doing crunches is a part of my kung fu training and now has become as important to me as eating because they are both ways for me to maintain my body.

It is important when doing ab exercises to avoid moving the lower back off the ground. When I crunch, I start with my back and my feet flat on the ground. Then, I raise my upper back at most 6 inches off the ground, making sure my lower back stays flat against the ground. Also, I put my hands behind my head to provide support to my neck, being careful not to pull my head with my hands.

Doing crunches lays the foundation to well-defined abs.