Summer is just around the corner. And before you know it, you’ll find your friends already posting bikini-body pictures, while you don’t even have that confidence to go to the beach.
If you are that person right now, it’s time to give yourself a break. Step into an ultimate lifestyle make-over and get rid of those belly fats. Obviously, though, that would lead you to the most difficult question now, “how to start?”
Don’t worry, we’ll give you the answer. This article is entirely dedicated to helping you have more happiness and fulfillment with your body and health, that you deserve. We will discuss an extremely easy but very effective exercise routine, one that you can incorporate on a daily basis. This exercise is called knee crunches.
So, get ready to sit down and learn more, as we talk about the benefits of knee crunches. In this article, we will teach the most accurate way of doing the exercise, and some powerful alternatives that most people don’t know. Plus, everything else that you need to know about this exercise. Read more.
What is a knee crunch?
This exercise targets a lot of muscles, especially in your front muscles and side muscles such as your obliques.
Why do we highly recommend this exercise?
Among other things that make knee crunches very beneficial, one of the main reasons is that, it is super beginner friendly! If you are new to the world of body building or say, your body is not really used to working out, knee crunches are perfect for you, dear.
So, how do we start?
You start this exercise by setting your mind with the right motivation and of course, bracing yourself with the right method of doing knee crunches. Although, this exercise is really simple and easy, it still has its challenging flavor as all other muscle workouts have. Since, this exercise is more of a bodybuilding rather than a cardio, you can’t expect it to be too easy. You need to have that enough motivation to make a habit out of this exercise or you cannot enjoy its full potential.
It is imperative as well that you abreast yourself with the proper guide to do the knee crunches. We have seen tons of people, even those who considered themselves as experts, do this exercise the very wrong way. You’ll find yourself get more frustration rather than benefits if you don’t learn the right way.
Here it goes..
How to do knee crunches?
- You need start by lying your back to the floor. To do that properly, we advice you to put your hand at the back of your legs, and you are going to roll down slowly, one vertebrae at a time.
- Your feet should be put flat on the floor, with your knees can be hip distance or all the way together, whatever you are comfortable with. (It doesn’t really matter!)
- Place your hands at the back of your head. Then, here comes our most important tip that we can give you, especially for your safety: Don’t lace your fingers together at the back of your head.
Lacing your fingers together tends to put pressure on the neck. You want to make sure that you are not pulling you on your head or your neck.
Note: If you start to see your elbows drifting out towards the skies it probably means your pulling out your head. You want to use your abdominals and not the strength of your arms or neck to get you up.
So, you can place your thumbs behind the ears while your other fingers support your head.
- Make sure that your chest is nice and open. Your elbows are open wide and your chin is lifted.
- Then you lift up, crunching up slowly, and then releasing down.
- Repeat reps until fatigue gets you. If you are a beginner, it’s probably going to be about 8 to 12 reps.
More tips..
Some people think that inserting alternating rests is a form of cheating to your exercise, but this theory cannot be held true with knee crunches. We really suggest that you rest two or three minutes in between your sets and then repeat as you are comfortable.
If you have been working out for a while, you may do up to a possibility of 50. Exhale as you lift and inhale as you lower.
You also need to avoid rubbing at the back which may bring your chin to your collar bone.
To point out, it is also important that you avoid blowing the elbows inward and just keep your elbows out. Your chin should be constantly slightly lifted. Basically, the main challenge of this exercise is consistency. You’ll find that because of fatigue, you execute things wrongly and jumble the placement of your arms and head. So you have got to be careful with that.
Benefits of Knee Crunches
Now that you have learned the proper technique to knee crunches, it’s time to get your motivation on and discuss the awesome benefits of knee to elbow crunches. So, let’s get started.
Knee crunches target your abs
It is basic science textbook that Knee crunches is the perfect exercise if one wants to build, tone and strengthen their abs muscles. The knee to elbow crunch targets the rectus abdominus muscles and all the other muscles in the abdominal region. Remember that knee crunches are basically known to be mainly a core exercise.
So, not only it tones up your abs and cuts it into a perfect shape, this exercise also strengthens and tightens them like no other. You’ll not get beautiful abs, you’ll have beautiful and strong abs.
Knee crunches burn out belly fats
We are sure a lot of body builders are skeptical on this theory right now, but we will fight for this fact until the end! There’s no other region of your body which gets the greatest amount of tension and pressure than your waist and core region. Don’t you notice sweat heating off from your belly while doing each difficult reps?
Yes, we agree that this exercise is mainly focused on building your abs but in a lot of ways, this can get rid of your belly fats as well. A lot of people say you are only wasting your time and energy crunching up and down, expecting your belly to get slim, well, we beg to disagree!
Building muscles is actually another way of getting rid of fats. Although, you may not appreciate them too much, especially when you find that your weighing scale never dropped at all. Don’t fret! It’s entirely normal. Building more abs will gain you more weight rather than lose, as fats are replaced with muscles, and muscles are heavier than fats. We don’t know about you, but for us it’s something you should celebrate. Not only you are gaining muscles, you are losing fats, too. What a healthier way to put it!
Knee crunches are suitable for beginners
As we keep on mentioning, one benefit of this exercise is that fact that it’s undeniably easy and doable. In the world of body building, we need to consider that there is no such thing as easy and there is no way to short cuts. But, this exercise is not one of those that would make you feel less motivated and less excited to perform.
It is very motivating and inspiring because you can see actually visible results in just days without beating yourself to the punch. This is the type of exercise that you won’t need an expert coach or trainer to perform accurately. If you’ll just follow the guide that we are giving to you, you can consider yourself a knee crunch expert overtime.
Knee crunches is super convenient
Definitely needless to say, this exercise is one of those few exercises that don’t need a membership of the gym or a contract with a trainer. Aside from the gorgeous fact that it is beginner-friendly, this exercise is totally convenient in terms of space, time availability. You wouldn’t need any equipment, barbells and even the right gym clothes with this exercise. So, whether you are on a vacation, or at work during lunch breaks, you can absolutely do this anywhere and anytime you may.
5 Amazing Knee crunches alternative that most people don’t know
These exercises pretty much have similar effects to you muscles and your entire body. They may not be entirely the same with knee crunches, because obviously these are not the same exercises as the knee crunch, but these exercises would lead you to the path of abs and obliques as well.
Knee up crunches
Our first pick is definitely one that would be dubbed as the sister of basic knee crunches, and that is the knee up crunches. The steps of this exercise is entirely similar to that of knee crunches, except the position of the feet and legs.
In this exercise, instead of placing both feet parallel to the ground, you would like to lift them altogether in a 90 degrees angle. Admittedly, this exercise if expected to be more difficult and challenging. Incorporating this exercise to your daily routine, would help you get the hang of it. Especially, if you are beginner, you will just have to include this to your routine by starting with few reps with one or two sets.
Knee tuck crunches
A lot of people say that knee tuck crunches are more of like a plank variation rather than a crunch variation. But, seriously, how can you say that the knee tuck crunches are plank exercises? Wait ‘till you learn the steps. You will find that it is a combination of both.
Anyway, the root doesn’t really count. What matters for us here is that they pretty much perform the same function as the knee crunches, and you bet it right. Knee tuck is also perfect for toning your abs and getting rid of your belly fats. It is also an amazing exercise for your legs.
Vertical leg crunch
The vertical leg crunch is known to be more focused on targeting the upper abdominals. However, this exercise is a little hard and we rarely recommend this for newbies. The steps include lifting vertically both legs up in the air and doing crunches with that maintained position.
But, no matter how challenging this exercise sounds, we encourage you to at least and try and step out of your shell until this becomes part of your routine. The vertical leg crunch is regarded by most studies as one of the most effective abs workout and targets your obliques like no other.
Bicycle crunch
The bicycle crunch is a little combination of an abs workout and a cardio exercise, which is great, right? This exercise involves a lot of various and alternate movements which stimulates numerous muscles of your body. Yet, the main target of this exercise is your core, your upper and lower abs and your obliques.
We also love how you can manage and improve your breathing skills with this exercise.
To do the bicycle crunches, you just basically lie down on the floor and perform a bicycle riding movements, only to add crunches in between. Learn more.
Reverse crunch
The reverse crunch is held as a totally unique and impressive exercise not in terms of the steps, but in terms of the muscles that it is targeting.
You may see nothing special with its steps. But by what it means is that this exercise is different enough from other crunches to target the transverse abdominals. This portion of the abs is the deepest muscle in our stomach.
The steps are basically more of lifting you knees up towards meeting your nose and your chin.
The last, and probably the most important tip we can give to you is to have fun in doing all this exercise. We are so excited for your journey towards fitness and hopefully improved health. Expect great results as you perform the knee crunches, and its different variation.
Don’t forget to share this exercise to your friends or might as well, do this exercise together. The more, the merrier, the more productive you can be.
