Cable Crunch

Core · core · intermediate

Start

Finish

How to do it

Kneel facing a high cable holding a rope beside the ears, hinge the hips back slightly to set them, then crunch the ribcage down toward the pelvis by rounding the upper back, keeping the hips fixed.

Muscles worked

Primary: core · Also works: obliques

Equipment

Cables

Common mistakes

Hinging at the hips to pull the weight down, which makes it a lat exercise instead of an ab exercise
Letting the elbows travel away from the head so the arms pull the rope
Loading so heavy that the lower back rounds hard under compression at the bottom

Variations

Rotate slightly toward one knee for oblique bias
Use a band anchored high at home
Standing cable crunch for less knee pressure

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Take care: ABROFIT automatically removes this movement for anyone who has flagged a lower back problem. If that's you, use one of the swaps above and speak to a physio before loading it.

Related exercises

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