Let's say you wanted to develop your biceps muscles, would you pick up a light weight and do hundreds of reps of biceps curls? Of course not! Yet how many times have you walked in to a gym and seen people doing hundreds of crunches or sit-ups, or doing them carrying heavy weights? Then even worse, they call them core strengthening exercises.
To me, that is not core development.
To me it is only a dumb, boring and ineffective way to train such an important part of your body.
And besides, crunches aren't complete core development, because they only work the upper abs part of the core.
But that doesn't mean a crunch isn't good exercise, it's just not the only exercise and far from being the most challenging one.
Even then, it is not properly worked.
To get strength and size gains, you must stay between approximately 8 and 12 reps.
The same goes for core muscles, even upper abs.
You do also need power for your core, but before working on that, I would focus a lot on strength development and stability.
As long as we are concerned with upper abs, it can sometimes be challenging to find exercises that are hard enough to fatigue your muscles within 8 to 12 reps.
Luckily for you, I have become an expert at this task.
I can show you exercises that can challenge safely the beginner and others that can challenge even the most advance athlete within the optimal range of 8 to 12 reps.
There are basically 3 types of upper abs exercises: Crunching Exercises - Exercises that involve flexion of he spine o Ball Crunch o Reverse Crunch o Prone Jacknife o V-Up o Medicine Ball Slam Down o Straight Leg Hip Raise o Upside-Down Crunch o Hanging Knee Raise o Hanging Straight Leg Raise o Supine Diving Board Isometric Exercises - Exercises without movement of the spine o Knee Plank o Plank o Ball Up Up Down Down Extension Resistance Exercises - Exercises on which hip flexors & latissimus dorsi (large back muscle) pull on the spine to extend it.
The upper & lower abs must therefore create force in flexion to stabilize the spine.
Note that these exercises, if done correctly, can be very challenging! o Kneeling Pull Over o Knee Forward Ball Roll o Knee Bb Roll o Straight Forward Ball Roll o Straight Bb Roll *Note that these exercises are often also advanced lower abs exercises since they work in concert with upper abs to stabilize the spine, so I strongly recommend that you master all the lower abs coordination [http://devynecode.
com/2008/10/21/how-to-work-lower-abs-to-improve-performance-in-your-sport/] exercises before attempting any of these exercises.
* Also note that the exercises are listed in order of difficulty, so you must make sure that you master an exercise before moving on to the next one.
Remember that during all these exercises, you always want to avoid bringing your low back into extension.
If you cannot prevent this, it means that your lower abs aren't strong enough to sustain the difficulty of the exercise.
This is why I once again remind you to master all the lower abs coordination exercises.
Another very important key point concerns the neck.
When performing abs exercises, people often hold their head as they perform the exercise (especially for crunching exercises).
This only worsens an often big imbalance between flexors of the neck (which promote good posture) and flexors of the spine (abs).
To avoid this and to strengthen those weak neck flexors, make sure you do not use your hands to lift up your head.
Also note that you don't just want to lift your head, you want to lift it by rolling the neck and keeping your chin in towards your spine at all times.
You should feel the muscles in front of your neck working, not in the back.
If you feel muscles in the back of your neck working, it's because your chin isn't tucked in enough which makes the extensors of the neck work, instead of the flexors.