Do Crunches Really Work To Build ABS & Obliques? – Few Important Questions About Crunches

There are various popular and effective muscle building exercises, but some of them are more popular than the others including abdominal exercises which are the integral part of most of the muscle building programs. However, many people make mistakes while doing such exercises which may result in low gains. Therefore, it is really important to learn the answers of a few very important questions to avoid such mistakes in future.

Do Crunches Really Work?

When it is about abdominal exercises, the crunches are most important moves. Well, the question “Do crunches really work for ABS?” is really important to be answered. Crunches actually work, but sometimes people make mistakes in understanding the role of such crunch exercises in gaining muscle and this is the main reason and when they don’t get the results, they blame that these exercises are useless.

If you remember, you used to do crunches in your school in the form of sitting up and when you grew up and joined a fitness gym, these crunches came in advanced form. You must have seen people with great ABS or six packs and when you look at them, you realize that they did not focus on a single body part but focused to improve overall body muscles for which they used full body training techniques rather than a particular exercise and people wonder “Do crunches work for ABS alone?. The answer is in positive that they surely work but simply doing crunches will not help in getting a full muscular body physique.

What Muscles Do Crunches Work?

There are 4 sets of muscles found in the abdominal area which are known as;

1. Rectus abdominis
2. External obliques
3. Internal obliques
4. Transversus abdomin

All these sets are really important and they must be given proper time to strengthen and tone.

Do Crunches Work for Belly Fat Only?

Most probably the answer is No. When we talk about burning body fat, it means we are talking about burning body fat from all over the body from each body part not just a particular body part such as the belly. It is proven that when someone use fat burning workouts, these workouts work to shed fat from all body parts and thus saying that crunches work for belly fat only is wrong.

Crunches are said to be very effective in toning and strengthening ABS, but this effectiveness is not useful until you shed excessive belly fat as the muscles are hidden under the layer of that fat.

Are Crunches Highly Intensive?

It is said that crunches are actually not very effective fat burning workouts as they are not highly intensive. Someone with an average body can easily perform 50-100 crunches per day and it shows that these exercises are not highly intensive.

Do Crunches Work Your Obliques?

Yes, it is said that crunches work for obliques, but there are various types of crunches such as side crunches which are considered to be good for isolating obliques in the perfect way.

About The Author

Alice is a passionate writer and he enjoys writing about online muscle building programs and his notable work in this regard is a review article on Kyle Leon and his online muscle gaining program.