What Is the Kneeling Cable Crunch Exercise
The kneeling cable crunch is a great way to build up ab strength as it targets all your abdominal muscle groups throughout the motion. You are literally working out just your abs throughout the motion, providing your do it correctly.
Kneeling Cable Crunch Muscles worked
The first muscle group worked here is your rectus abdominis which are your six-pack muscles that sit at the front of our stomach.
Many say that these don't help with spine stabilisation and are more vanity muscles.
However, what I can say from my own experience is that they have helped me get up when i'm lying down on the bed or crouching over to pick something up as I can easily tense them and I do find I feel more supported during these movements as I utilise my ab muscles.
The external obliques are secondly worked during the cable crunch. These sit at either side of the spine and will help you with rotation moments and help you with carrying a better posture.
Benefits Of Cable Crunch
One of the greats things about this exercise is that it allows you to control how much resistance you want to apply via the pinned weights.As your abs get stronger and the exercise becomes easier to perform you simply increase the resistance via the pinned weights or increase your repetitions.
Common Mistakes
Not Rounding Your Back
Keep your back flat when you start, but as you move down, round your back to ensure your abs are getting used. Pulling with your hands You will need to make a conscious effort to pull the rope down using your abs and torso, not your arms. This is a very easy mistake to make.
Sitting down
As you move down pulling the rope using your abs and torso, don't sit down with your butt resting on your heals. Use a mat for better support so you can stay upright in the kneeling position while you crunch and lift back up.
Kneeling Cable Crunch Drawbacks
If you are just starting out and have poor ab strength along with lower back issues then I would stay away from this exercise all together, or at least until you've managed to eliminate your back pain and have been able to strengthen your weak back.
Doing any sort of crunches are not good for the back as a lot of the issues you have with regards to your back are due to bending and extending our spine while your core muscle groups are weak.
- Kneel down in front of the high pulley apparatus. Use a mat if you can.
- Select your weight to pull down.
- Grab the rope with each hand and open it positioned at each side of your head.
- Using your torso, pull down on the rope using your hips and tensing your abs as you pull down.
- Hold for a second and then move back to starting.
- Repeat.
