Crunch the Habit of Doing Crunch After Crunch

ByAaron Gee

Your other exercises are typically in the range of 8-15 reps. So what in the world makes you think that doing crunch after crunch, after crunch, after crunch will have any effect?

If something at the gym takes you hundreds of reps in order to feel even a minuscule burn, you're doing it wrong.

I don't know how crunches became so popular. I think people like them because they're easy to do, and because the stomach area is the number one problem area for most people. But you're not going to get six-pack abs from doing thousands of crunches. Crunches do little to strengthen or tighten your core. Plus, they really only hit the top half of your abs, leaving your lower abs neglected. You're wasting your time and effort.

There are much better ab exercises. Here are three of our favorites:

Roman chair

Most gyms have this piece of equipment. It's the chair with armrests but no seat to sit on. To complete one rep, you start with your legs straight below you and pull your knees up to your chest with your abs. For a more advanced exercise, keep your legs straight and extend them straight out in front of you. Try to finish with your legs slightly past parallel with the ground, and try to hold your legs in the final position if you can for an additional burn.

The key to this exercise is to not swing your legs. Momentum is the ultimate results killer. Try to go slower if you feel the tendency to swing your body. Bring your legs down slowly when returning to the starting position after each rep and focus on using the lower part of your abs to get them past horizontal.

Try to do sets of 15-20 with your legs fully extended, if possible.

Stability ball sit-ups

These are excellent for your abs and the only other exercise I do for my abs besides the Roman chair. Most gyms have these balls in various sizes. Grab one of the larger ones and sit on it such that the arch of your lower back rests along the curvature of the ball. Extend downwards as far as you can comfortably go for the starting position, and contract your abs and obliques to thrust your chest as high as possible. Go up slowly upwards and slowly back down. Remember, this is a sit-up, not a crunch.

By using the stability ball, you really have to focus on your core to keep yourself balanced during each sit-up. Try to also do sets of 15-20 reps of these.

Sprinting

Sprinting is easily my favorite ab exercise. The process of driving your knees explosively forward as you sprint will work your abs and obliques more intensely than any other exercise. I can't remember the last time I did a sprint workout and wasn't sore all around my midsection.

Not to mention, a regular sprinting regimen like the one used in EpicFit20's Premium Membership will help shed fat from the stomach and oblique area, making the ab muscles look even better.

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How To Make Fitness A Habit

Most Workout Programs Are Dropped

The ugly fact about workout programs is that most people drop them. That does not make the person or the program a failure; it often takes a few tries before finding a workout that sticks or learning enough about yourself that you can make anything stick. Current research on building good health habits shows that it takes two months of repetition tied to a behavioral trigger before a habit becomes maximally automatic, much longer than conventional wisdom suggests. Making fitness a habit requires more than forcing yourself to go to the gym every day for two weeks. Making fitness a habit requires longer and more intentional repetition and a strategy to condition your mind. So consider the following four keys to building good habits and sticking to your workouts will be much easier and your fitness success will be much more achievable.

Consider Repetition, Simplicity, Triggering, and Consistency When Building Your Workout Plan

Your chances of success in forming any habit go up as the amount of repetition, simplicity, triggering, and consistency go up.

Repetition - Intend to repeat the action at least every day. Multiple times a day is better. Research shows that missing a very occasional day does not affect the rate of habit establishment, so don't kick yourself if you slip up. But research also shows that more missed workouts equals less habit forming so intend to repeat at least every day.

Simplicity - Simple actions become habits much more easily. Actions like "grab the pull-up bar" and "do a push-up" will become habits much more easily than "begin my 7 device workout circuit" or "change clothes, find the dvd, and follow Jillian for 15 minutes". If you can establish the more complex workouts as a habit that is great! Those workouts are great. Complex workouts just do not easily become a habit for most of us so when you are having trouble making a habit, make it simple.

Triggering - Strong habits are triggered by daily actions that you would perform anyway. Pair a habit you want with a habit you already have. Simple and high-repetition trigger pairs such as "press START on the microwave -> reach up for the pull-up bar" and "take off my shoes -> do a push-up" work much better than "remember to drive by the gym on the way home on Tuesdays and Fridays."

Consistency - Every time you do the trigger, do the habit you want to build. The more you do it every time, the more it becomes a habit. That is a big reason why simple actions with frequent triggers "stick" more often than complex workouts on infrequent schedules.

I enjoy taking orders from Jillian, trying to keep up with Shaun T, and gritting it out with new friends at a "combat fit" class at the gym. I sincerely applaud people with enough self discipline to make workouts like these a habit. But most people (including me) are somewhat spontaneous, have more random schedules, and lack the self discipline to make complex, distant, or irregular workouts a habit. Simple basic exercises like counter corner leg lifts and pull-ups consistently triggered by daily behaviors more easily become great fitness habits and can work fitness wonders for you.

Mike Massey
http://freefitnessforlife.com/

Free at-home fitness exercises and tips. If gym memberships and exercise programs have not worked for you either, make fitness an easy and natural part of your everyday life.

Get started now at http://freefitnessforlife.com/

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