I need advice on my crunches.

[rsox353]

Do Knee to elbows. Start with a pull up. Hold your weight with your arms bent and just pull your knees to your elbows, keep your arms bent. Its a great ab workout

[JamesMShaw]

Thanks for all the advice, Duarte I tried that breathing technique but I go down so fast that I can't breath in quick enough before I'm back up and hitting my thighs. Am I perhaps doing something wrong?

[JamesMShaw]

Once again thanks for the advice, I went to my Recruiter's yesterday to do an IST with another guy. I did 6 Pull Ups (I think my bar at home may be a bit easier), 55 Crunches, and the 1.5 miles in 11:42.

I tried to utilize all the advice I was given here, in fact I was able to use the breathing technique Duarte mentioned and it seems to have worked. On the run, we ran a different road this time, one with far more hills. I'm not sure if I have just somehow slacked off on my run (felt like I was running faster) or if it was the hills, but either way I'm still working to improve it more.

[duarte]

sorry James, i was not paying attention to this thread for some odd reason.. I should have written you sooner..didn't mean to let you down brother.. OK, here is the scoop. Keep in mind that the inhale when you go down is not a long inhale. is rather quick. is not to feel your lungs up. is just to replenish them slowly and get the blood flowing. So my advise is, try feeling up with air right before the exercise begins,and then replenish with small and quick intakes of air while you bring your torso down to the floor.. also do the inhale through your nose. exhale through your mouth. reason being is because the temperature in the air is cooler than body temp., and your mouth is closer to your lungs, if you inhale through your nose, you warm that air up a little more, and makes every exercise easier. try using this for running too.. helps out a lot.
But remember that the breathing is a quick process to replenish your air supply, not to fill up, and burst all out. and also know that I am not an expert nor do i have a degree on exercise.. but i will always help if you have any questions on stuff that i know.. and i hope you guys can do the same for me. =}

[JamesMShaw]

I have already been using it for running, however taking deeper breaths. Looking back I do believe I was using more shallow breaths this time during the crunches.

[duarte]

good s**t, then.

[kt3of3]

Another thing to keep in mind is that your abdominal muscles recovery faster than any other muscle in the body so feel free to train them everyday in one capacity or another.

I'm an age waiver so I have to score high on a full PFT. Now, I'm no slouch when it comes to core exercising but I could only manage 55 sit-ups in the 2 minute period. All those sets of 20-30 reps with a 25lb weight on my chest did me absolutely no good. This portion of the PFT is more about endurance than strength so my strategy is to work out exactly as I will during the next PFT and as often as possible (max reps in 2 minutes 3-4 times per day) - in addition to my normal core workout (3 days per week).

Also, ditto to what has already been mentioned above because it can't be over-emphasized - proper breathing and technique is crucial, it promotes the most gains by isolating the muscles you're trying to target and also lessens the chance of strains and other injuries.

[Retto]

I did a mock IST at MEPS on Thursday and they told those of us that were supposed to ship out Mon/Tues would most likely not be shipped out if we could not meet pullup/arm hang and crunch numbers. I was one of the people that could not meet crunch requirements (and most likely can't meet them by Monday).

I am having major issues with crunches. I don't think my body knows how to engage the right muscles, either that or I'm just a lot more out of shape than I thought. I have to stop sometimes after just 10-15 crunches and even after waiting a few seconds I can only lift myself for another 1 at most. Does anyone have any recommendations for exercises I can use to work up to crunches, perhaps a really simple exercise that works one of the muscles that crunches do?

My recruiter says that rows (from a lying down position, not the seated/weighted kind) is a really nice exercise to help with crunches but I cannot do those either.

[Zulu 36]

I did a mock IST at MEPS on Thursday and they told those of us that were supposed to ship out Mon/Tues would most likely not be shipped out if we could not meet pullup/arm hang and crunch numbers. I was one of the people that could not meet crunch requirements (and most likely can't meet them by Monday).

I am having major issues with crunches. I don't think my body knows how to engage the right muscles, either that or I'm just a lot more out of shape than I thought. I have to stop sometimes after just 10-15 crunches and even after waiting a few seconds I can only lift myself for another 1 at most. Does anyone have any recommendations for exercises I can use to work up to crunches, perhaps a really simple exercise that works one of the muscles that crunches do?

My recruiter says that rows (from a lying down position, not the seated/weighted kind) is a really nice exercise to help with crunches but I cannot do those either.

Hate to say this, but if you can't do crunches now, you won't be doing enough by Monday or Tuesday. You've been slack in your PT workups during DEP and now you're finding out the Marine Corps is serious about these things.

The only way to really build up for crunches is to do them. There is nothing out there that is simpler than that. You have to force more out of yourself and do them more than once per day.

[coltie52]

My current IST stands at:

7 Pullups
42 Crunches
11:22 1.5 mile

My Pullups and run time have been progressively getting better, however I'm not sure what sort of work out I should do for my crunches. I know, just doing them is the best you can do. But should I just do the max in two minutes several times a day, or is there a better way to go about it?

Thank you for your help in advance.

well my final PFT I got 180 in 2min.
all you have to is drop your arms as low on your belly as you can and move you butt to your heels. and just close your eyes and go.
like for workouts at night I do a set of 200 crunches at a slow speed, then oblique crunches 100 each side at a slow speed, when I say slow I mean like 3 seconds up 3 seconds down. then I do well here this is my workout

-200 standard crunches/ slow
-200 oblique crunches(100 each side)/slow
-100 leg lifts(hands at 45 degree angle to the side of your body not under your butt)/slow
-2min planks for 4 sets
-Cobra stretch for 1min
-100 crunches/Fast(as if you were being timed)
-100 crunches/slow

like I do the normal crunches with 25lbs weights to help build them up, then do the fast set with out weight.
just do that one week then then have some one time you at the end of the week. like every time you do it you should be hurting when you wake up in the morning.
there's my two cents

[2ndCEBSupply]

Im reading this thread and realize most of you dont have a clue about the abdominal muscles.
A lot of information is wrong and can lead to over worked muscles that will leave you with cramps.
Your abs consists of four parts
upper abs
middle
lower
obliques
to gain full muscle and be abe to fight resistance or better yet do a 100 crunches (propererly i doubt any of you have ever did one proper constraint crunch) you have to work each one seperately.

your doing it wrong when
you rock going up
lower back hurts
bresthing to hard

i got to go yoll figure it out

[Mike01]

What if you just can't quite reach your thighs with your elbows?

[PaidinBlood]

What if you just can't quite reach your thighs with your elbows?

well...let me see...then you're doing it wrong! sorry chief. no hard answer for that one. just try scootin your butt one way or another and checking your arm position.

[Eidal]

I'm pretty sure in the book I got from my recruiter that it said its okay to put your feet under something, but now I can't find the quote.

Will this be okay for developing the abs, and will they allow me to do this at MEPS for the IST?

[PaidinBlood]

will what be ok?