Upper Abdominal Exercises: Ab Crunches

Video Transcript

"Abdominal crunch on the ball. Now we are all familiar with crunches but I'm going to show you a technique that is going to keep your neck from injury, from hurting and it is also going to help strengthen your neck as you are doing the ab exercises. Because what most people don't know is that they have probably an imbalance because their necks are weaker than their abs are and because that is why the neck hurts when they are doing the abdominal crunches. So what you are going to do is when you are having a ball your size, making sure that the thighs are parallel to the floor, you're going to roll into it until the head is parallel to the floor so you have that support, it is like a pillow under you. Keep your feet hip width apart and your heels are underneath your knees so you are not out here and you are going to keep your hips up. You look like a table top. Now the proper way to do an abdominal crunch is not lifting the head but rolling the head. So as I exhale I am going to bring the chin into the chest and then lift. I am going to keep the tongue in the roof of my mouth to activate the flexors and the extensors of the neck. So I'm going to be quiet so I can keep the tongue in the roof of my mouth. So if you notice I am inhaling down and you can hear my exhalation as I come up. I am going to keep eye contact with the belly button. I lower my shoulders first and then I unroll my head. This you are going to do until your neck starts to fatigue, not when they fatigue but just before it fatigues and you will be able to catch up the strength of the neck with the abdominal strength. So do enough for the neck until the neck fatigues and then before you know it you are going to be catching up with the abs and I'll show you an advanced version in another clip so I'll see you soon."