How to Do Reverse Crunches (Plus Benefits, Modifications, & Safety Tips)

The reverse crunch is a great core exercise to strengthen your abs and increase your overall balance and stability—no equipment required! We’ll give you all the steps you need to do reverse crunches correctly, including how to increase the intensity, avoid injury, and learn about all the health benefits you get from performing this exercise. We also spoke with fitness trainer Laila Ajani and personal trainer Dean Theriot to learn how to perform variations of the reverse crunch. Read on and get toned abs in no time!

Reverse Crunch Exercise

Lie face-up with your arms at your sides and your legs fully extended.
Bend your knees 90 degrees and pull them toward your head.
Lift your hips up off the mat, keeping your knees bent and head straight.
Lower your hips to the mat and return to the starting position.
Repeat 10 to 15 times over 3 sets.

Section 1 of 5:

How to Perform Reverse Crunches

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Lie face-up with your arms at your sides. Lay on a yoga mat and fully extend your legs with your toes pointing upward. Press your palms firmly into the floor to create stability.^{[1]
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Research source} If you don’t feel stable when you lift your feet, modify the exercise by sliding your hands face-down beneath your buttocks to anchor your arms closer to your body.^{[2]
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- Relax your shoulders and neck to minimize the tension in your upper body.
- Stretching out on a lightly cushioned surface like a yoga mat or a carpeted section of the floor can make performing the exercise more comfortable.
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Bend your knees and draw them in toward your chest. Lift your feet and bend your knees into a 90-degree angle with your thighs perpendicular to the floor. Inhale as you contract your lower abdomen and bring your bent knees inward towards your chest.^{[3]
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- If this exercise is too difficult, bend your knees a little bit more.
- Make sure your hips and butt are firmly rooted to the floor. They’ll act as a hinge for your thighs to swivel over.
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Lift your hips up off the mat, keeping your knees bent. When your knees are close to your face, push your hips up until your lower back barely lifts off the ground. Squeeze your abs at the top. Keep your head straight and your shoulders and neck relaxed.^{[4]
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- This extra lift increases the overall range of motion, making the crunch more effective. If you struggle to lift your hips up, skip this step during your workout.
- Try to avoid rocking into the movement or extending your back too forcefully. You’re just looking for a tight vertical tilt to briefly engage your middle and upper abs.
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Lower your hips to the mat and return to the starting position. Let your legs and hips come down in a slow, controlled manner, stopping when your thighs are perpendicular to the floor. Reverse the motion of your legs and raise your knees again to start the next repetition. You’ve just completed your first reverse crunch!^{[5]
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- When you return to the starting position, take a split second to steady yourself and neutralize any momentum you’ve built up before moving into the next reverse crunch.
- Pausing momentarily will also give you a chance to catch your breath and assess your technique.
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Do 3 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions. If you’re new to the world of reverse crunches, stick to only three sets of 10-15 reps. A rep (or repetition) is a single repetition of an exercise, while a set is a group of repetitions. In this case, you want to complete three groups of 10-15 reverse crunches, with 30-60 seconds of rest in between each rep. As you feel more comfortable with the exercise and gain more strength, increase the number of repetitions or the number of sets you perform.^{[6]
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- If 10 to 15 is too many to start out with, try doing 8 each time until your abs get stronger.
- To minimize the chance of injury, try to put form above all else. Keep your movements slow and controlled, and breathe deeply as you move through the exercise.

Section 2 of 5:

Benefits of Reverse Crunches

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Stronger abdominals and hip flexors Reverse crunches target your rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and other spine-supporting muscles. It also works the hip flexors, the muscles responsible for lifting your legs towards your body.^{[7]
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- Reverse crunches teach your body to transfer the energy and effort from your core to your legs and the other parts of your body, improving your ability to lift weight.
- This exercise may also strengthen your internal and external obliques, or the “side abs” from your hips to your ribs.^{[8]
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Back pain prevention Practicing crunches of any kind can strengthen your abdominal muscles, which support your lower back.^{[9]
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Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School's Educational Site for the Public

Go to source} Doing core exercises like reverse crunches may improve chronic back pain over time and lower the chance of injuring your muscles.^{[10]
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Mayo Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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- If you have upper back pain, reverse crunches may not be for you. Instead, try doing a plank to strengthen your abs without creating more back discomfort.^{[11]
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  Harvard Medical School
  Harvard Medical School's Educational Site for the Public
  
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Ab exercises train the muscles in your core to work together, leading to better balance and stability.^{[12]
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Mayo Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

Go to source} Because your abdominal muscles support your lower back, doing crunches and other ab exercises regularly can also improve your posture and spinal health.^{[13]
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Less strain on your neck and upper back Unlike regular crunches, this exercise targets your core without putting pressure on your neck and upper back. This is because you aren’t twisting or moving your spine to work your ab muscles.^{[14]
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- Reverse crunches zero in on the bottom part of your abs, while regular crunches focus on the top and may risk neck pain if you move too quickly.^{[15]
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Section 3 of 5:

Modifying the Reverse Crunch

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Place both of your hands behind your head to increase the difficulty. Work your abs harder by placing your hands flat on the back of your head with your elbows tucked in. This will increase the pressure on your abs while supporting your head.^{[16]
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- By comparison, placing your hands under your lower back may cause less ab involvement because it increases the arch in your back.^{[17]
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Extend your legs straight out in front of you to work your abs more. In the starting position, stick your legs straight out from your body. Bend your knees 90 degrees and pull them toward your chest. When you lift your hips, point your toes straight up toward the ceiling so your calves are perpendicular to the floor.^{[18]
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- If this is too intense, try to straighten your legs so your feet are further than 90 degrees away from your butt.
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Increase the number of repetitions once you’re used to the baseline. Once you get to the point where you can do 10 to 15 reps with ease, gradually work your way up to 20 reps with 30 to 60 seconds of rest in between. Keep working until you get up to 3 sets.^{[19]
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- The number of sets you do depends on your goals and the way the rest of your workout is structured. If your workout has a lot of other ab workouts, you may want to stick to 3 sets so you don’t overwork your core.
- If your goal is to get a 6-pack, Ajani says you can do crunches “one or two times per week, but you can probably see more progress with like five or six times per week.”
EXPERT TIP

Tiffany Stafford, CPT
Life Coach, Personal Trainer, & Holistic Nutritionist
Tiffany Stafford is a Certified Personal Trainer, Holistic Nutritionist, and the Owner of LifeBODY Fitness, a personal training and small group training studio based in Hillsboro, Oregon. She has over two decades of personal training and coaching experience. She specializes in wellness training, life coaching, and holistic nutrition teaching. She earned her personal training certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).

Tiffany Stafford, CPT
Life Coach, Personal Trainer, & Holistic Nutritionist

Expert Trick: In addition to increasing repetitions, you can also add in weights to make the crunches more intense and effective. To do this, hold a medicine ball, dumbbell, or another heavy object between your feet as you do the crunch.
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Sit on a decline bench or chair to make the exercise easier. Lie on a decline or sit-up bench or a sturdy household chair so that your head is higher than your legs. Hold onto the object so your arms are completely outstretched. Bend your knees, then pull them toward your chest, curling your pelvis off the floor.^{[20]
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- A decline bench with variable height settings can allow you to make the movement slightly easier if you're fatigued or struggling to make it through a full range of motion.
- Performing reverse crunches on a decline forces you to engage the muscles of your lower abs even more while taking the burden off your hip flexors.

Section 4 of 5:

Reverse Crunch Variations

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Isometric crunches Place your hands above your head or rest your fingertips on your earlobes. Squeeze your upper abs until your head and shoulders are off the floor. You can either maintain this position as a static hold while doing your reverse crunches or raise both your upper and lower body simultaneously for a blistering total ab workout.^{[21]
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- Make sure your core stays tightly contracted throughout the entire movement to steady yourself and keep both halves of your body moving in sync with one another.
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Bicycle crunches When you do bicycle crunches, Theriot says you should “lie on your back, usually on a mat, and bring your elbow to your knees...Hold your hands behind your head and alternate sides, so bring your right elbow to your left knee.”
- Theriot says to “make sure that you've got your abs flexed the whole time” and “have your lower back pressed onto the floor or mat.”
- Additionally, try not to crank your neck in toward your chest too much, or you might pull your cervical vertebrae in the wrong direction.
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Oblique crunches To do an oblique crunch, lie on your right side with your legs on top of each other and your knees bent 90 degrees. Place your left hand behind your head, then breathe in and move your elbow slowly toward your knees. Stay at the top of the pose for a few seconds, then drop down into the starting position as you breathe out.^{[22]
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- After you do 5 repetitions, switch sides.
- As you bend upward, Thierot says to “think about pulling your stomach in.” In addition, “keep your head neutral and, if anything, lean in the other direction. Squeezing at the top [also] definitely makes it more effective.”
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Fitness ball crunches This is a more advanced core exercise than a standard reverse crunch. To start, lie on the fitness ball on your stomach, with your feet and hands touching the floor. Walk your hands forward until the ball is under your upper thighs. Tighten your abs, press your knees into the ball, and use your abs to bring your knees towards your chest.^{[23]
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Mayo Clinic
Educational website from one of the world's leading hospitals

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- The ball will roll down until it’s under your calves. Hold this curled position for 3 breaths, then return to the starting position. Repeat this exercise 5 times.
- As you get stronger, increase to 10 to 15 repetitions.
- Keep your shoulders directly above your wrists while you do this exercise.

Section 5 of 5:

Common Reverse Crunch Mistakes

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Using momentum to curl your knees While it can be easy to let momentum take over as you roll up or return to the starting position, this can lessen the activation of your abs. Letting your legs do the work for you can also increase the strain on your hip flexors and lower back.^{[24]
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- Easy Solution: Move slowly as you work through the exercise. Count to 2 or 3 as you roll your legs toward your chest and your hips up, then count to 3 or 5 as you roll back down.^{[25]
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Arching your lower back Doing this exercise with a curve in your spine can decrease the load on your abs and shift the tension onto your hip flexors. This tension can also cause more stress on your lower back, potentially increasing the chances of pain and injury in that area.^{[26]
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- Easy Solution: When you’re in the starting position, make sure your lower back is flat on the ground. Lift your hips up slowly and with control.^{[27]
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Rolling too far when you lift up your hips When you raise your hips and back off the mat, tucking your knees too far toward your head, you risk losing control of your legs. This error can risk throwing your neck out of alignment and drawing the emphasis away from your core.^{[28]
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- Easy Solution: Try not to let your legs swing back toward you, over your head.^{[29]
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Returning to the starting position too far and too fast When you flop back down to the ground too fast, it can prevent your abs from lengthening the way they need to.^{[30]
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Research source} If you find yourself unable to stop once you start to drop down, it might be a sign that you need more ab-strengthening exercises before you can perform the reverse crunch correctly.
- Easy Solution: Concentrate on returning to the ground slowly and with control. Feel every vertebra in your spine touch the ground before your hips.^{[31]
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Is it bad, when I am doing reverse crunches, for my stomach to hurt? What's the cause of it?

Community Answer

It's not really your stomach that's hurting, it's your abdominal muscles. They're letting you know that they're working. It's normal for all abdomen exercises.

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How many times a day should I do this exercise?

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Start small - you don't want to overexert yourself. If you aren't in good shape, I would start out with three sets of 10 reverse crunches. If you think you can continue after that, then keep going. Stop when you feel like you can no longer complete the exercises. Each day, try to increase the number of crunches you are able to complete.

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Will this affect my growth? I'm on a basketball team and am currently 5'8, so should I do this so I can dunk better?

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Abdominal exercises shouldn't stunt your growth. Just focus on keeping your whole body in great shape and train as much as you can to get better at basketball, and you will eventually reach the level you want. (Word of warning, though: Make sure to train both your stomach and back. I once over-trained my stomach because I wanted a six-pack, and it caused my lower back to hurt because my stomach muscles were pulling harder than my back muscles.)

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Tips

Reverse crunches are an alternative to traditional crunches and sit-ups. They may work better for those who suffer from lower back pain or are looking for an alternative to the standard crunch.

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Keep a consistent pace. Both the raising and lowering portions of the movement should take about 3-5 full seconds.

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If you’re having trouble keeping your shoulders from coming up off the floor, try extending your arms overhead and holding onto a stable surface, such as a bench or dumbbell.

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Warnings

Be careful not to let your back arch as you lower your legs. Doing so can place unnecessary strain on your lower back and lead to pain, injury, and discomfort.

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If you’re pregnant, try to avoid doing reverse crunches or any other exercises where you lie on your back after the first trimester.^{[32]
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