Incline Crunches – How to Use Weight, Bench & Ball

There are different types of crunches and most of them are considered to be effective abdominal exercises. Incline crunch comes to the top among such types. Incline crunches is not a high intensity exercise yet it gives really good results in toning and strengthening abdomen muscles. When you are doing abdominal exercises, make sure that your exercises target both upper & lower part of the abdominals and the obliques.

Use of Incline Bench & Medicine Ball

The use of incline bench and medicine ball is effective in increasing the level of difficulty and resistance to the crunch exercise and if you are using both of these things together, this will boost the two-folded intensity in your movement. There are a few simple rules which you should keep in mind while doing crunches.

  • The basic rule is quite simple and that is “The more you do, the more you can do”. If you incline the bench higher, the crunch will be more difficult and if you us the heavier medicine ball, the crunch will be even harder.
  • To perform an incline crunch effectively and safely, you better read instructions so that you don’t get injuries while doing exercise. These instructions are so simple and surely you will not find any difficulty in following them correctly.
  • Don’t be in a rush, just start with lower incline about 20-30 degrees but try to increase the degree when you feel comfortable with the current degree.
  • As far as medicine ball is concerned, repeat the same with it. In the beginning, use a ball of 3-5- pound and then slowly increase the ball weight.

Steps to Perform Incline Reverse Crunch

  • The first thing you have to do is to lie down straight on an incline bench with balanced body weight and put both of your hands to the top sides to hold them tightly.
  • Secondly, put your legs in such a position that both legs make a parallel to the floor. Your abs will help you hold the legs steady.
  • Thirdly, you need to move your both legs and knees towards your chest.
  • Fourthly, hold on this position for a few seconds and then move back your legs to the previous position.
  • Fifthly, repeat as many times as you can.

If you use dumbbells and hold them with edges of the shoes, you can make the incline reverse crunch much harder. When you perform this exercise, make sure that the dumbbells don’t fall.

Weighted Incline Crunches

The Weighted Incline Crunch is another great type of crunch and to perform this exercise you surely need an incline bench and the weight as described in the title but it is not imperative as it depends up to you either you would like to use the weight or not.

  • To perform weighted incline crunch, lie down on an incline bench and your feet are higher than your head. Make sure that your feet are carefully hooked under foot brace.
  • Now carefully hold a weighted plate with your hands over your chest.
  • Lift your upper body part by using your abs.
  • Hold for a second and then go back to the previous position.
  • Repeat incline bench reverse crunches as many times as you can.