UberExercise — Cable Crunch [Abs]

Cable Crunch Quick Hits

Primary Muscle:

Rectus Abdominis (“six pack” muscles)

Secondary Muscles:

Obliques, Serratus, Transverse Abdominis

What You’ll Need:

Cable station

Why They’re Über:

They place a TON of resistance on the abs — moreso than any other ab exercise — and allow for a clear linear progression. This produces ridiculously fast, unparalleled growth.

About The Cable Crunch

When it comes to powerful growth, cable crunches are the single best exercise for building bigger, stronger, uber-ripped abs as fast as possible.

Why? It’s simple — cable crunches let you use more weight. With traditional crunches, leg lifts, and sit-ups, the amount of weight you can use is severely restricted due to biomechanics. Fighting against gravity is a pretty difficult thing, particularly when you’re relying on the weaker neck and lower back muscles to crunch upwards.

By virtue of the cable station, it’s easy to apply heavy resistance and progress linearly — that’s absolutely KEY, as muscles grow when they’re challenged and pushed to lift more weight. I can pretty easily bang out a few sets of cable crunches with 140 pounds of resistance, but give me a dumbbell and I can just barely crunch half of that.

Once a given weight gets too easy, simply increase it by one plate for the next set. Continuously progress as your abs get stronger — you’ll grow extremely fast without giving it much thought.

With the exception of the ab plank, if I had to pick only 1 ab exercise to do for the rest of my life, my answer would no doubt be the cable crunch. Abs for days will literally explode out of your midsection.

Yum.

How To Do A Cable Crunch

Set-Up

1. Attach a rope handle attachment to the top of a cable pulley station
2. Set the weight stack to a resistance level that makes it challenging to bang out 35 reps — 15 down the middle, 10 to the right, 10 to the left
3. Grab the rope with both hands and lower your body down onto both knees. Stick your butt out, set your hips back and down, and form a 45 degree angle with your torso
4. Hold the rope out in front of your nose through the movement

Movement

1. Tighten your abs, puff out your chest, and slowly — WITHOUT moving your hips — crunch your abs down towards the floor
2. Once your chest is roughly parallel with the floor, SQUEEEEEZE the life out of your abs for 3 seconds. Hold it tight
3. Slowly extend your back, stretch out your abs and spine, and return to the starting position.
4. Repeat for 15 reps
5. After you’ve done 15 reps down the middle, do 10 reps to the left and then 10 to the right — this’ll blast your obliques
6. Aim to touch your right elbow to your left knee and vice versa

Precautions

Avoid the cable crunch if you have lower back problems.

Videos

This form is phenomenal.

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• About
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Bryan DiSanto

Owner & Editor-in-Chief at Lean It UP

Bryan DiSanto is the Owner & Editor-in-Chief of Lean It UP, ACE-CPT & CSN, NYU graduate, ex-fat kid, and all-around fitness/nutrition nutjob.

When he’s not working on his (or somebody else’s) abs, whipping up Eggocados, or running a Tough Mudder, he’s probably off yelling at a Carolina Panthers game somewhere.

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