Quote Originally Posted by JeffK View Post
  1. I thought the reason that it’s been recommended to do crunches with both the hips & the knees flexed at 90deg while lying on your back was to avoid using the psoas instead of the abs, which could lead to hyperlordosis, so I’m a bit puzzled by your suggestion of doing crunches over an exercise ball with legs extended.
  2. You say crunches are like sitting & slumping into your waist, but crunches work against gravity whereas slumping is passive – or have I misunderstood what you meant?
  3. I know crunches aren’t particularly functional, but don’t we use the abs in this way when going from lying to sitting and won’t toning the abs like this enable them to work better when used functionally?

Any clarification on any of these points welcomed!


You have good points there which was in my mind as well and therefore I welcome this discussion in this thread. Perhaps some brainstorming would be good for all of us fellow physios and what-not.

Ginger, you're righ, they are my own thoughts as I've been trying to find out how to isolate and work out the muscles in the most efficient way possible. Unlike the other muscles in the limbs which can be isolated easily and worked on, the abs are a tough bunch which I'm so interested to experiment on.