How to do Twisting Crunches

Instructions

Start laying on your back on a mat or a towel. Bring your hands up by your ears and take your elbows out wide. Then elevate your feet off the floor with a 90 degree bend at your hips and your knees. You want your thighs to be vertical and your shins to be parallel to the floor. This is the start position.

Then, keeping your lower back pressed down into the floor, tuck your chin to your chest, draw your belly button down and contract your abdominals to roll your upper spine up off the floor. At the same time, using your obliques, twist your upper body to the left so that your right shoulder and elbow rotate across towards your left knee. From here lower yourself back to the floor by rolling your spine back down to the floor, and return your right shoulder to the floor and right elbow back out to the wide starting position. Repeat the same crunch and twist motion, this time bringing the left shoulder and elbow across to the right knee and lower back down to centre. This is one complete repetition. Keep your legs elevated and repeat the twisting crunches for the duration of the exercise, always finish on the opposite side to the side you started on.

Watch out for the temptation to let your feet lower towards the floor, or for your knees to get drawn in towards the chest, allowing your hip-flexors to take over in the movement, which we don’t want.

If you want to dial the intensity down a little, try resting your feet up on a chair, step or bench.