Monday, January 25, 2021
  • Home
  • Deals
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us
Bodybuilding, Fitness, CrossFit, Strongman and Powerlifting
  • Mr. OlympiaHOT
  • Workouts
    • All
    • Arms
    • Back
    • Cardio
    • Chest
    • Core
    • Legs
    • Workout Plans
    How to Avoid Hip Pain

    13 Ways to Avoid Hip Pain in The Gym

    Calisthenics Training

    Calisthenics Training: A Beginner’s Guide

    Metcon Exercises and Workouts:

    Fun and Effective Metcon Exercises and Workouts for Big Guys

  • Nutrition
    • All
    • Essential Nutrients
    • Nutrition Tips
    Ronnie Coleman

    What Did Ronnie Coleman Eat in His Prime?

    Healthiest Ways To Eat Eggs

    Eggcellent Nutrition Tips: Healthiest Ways To Eat Eggs

    Break Through Keto Plateau

    How To Break Through Keto Plateau and Achieve New Fat Loss

  • Training
  • Exercises
    • All
    • Arms
    • Back
    • Chest
    • Core
    • Legs and Glutes
    • Shoulders
    Bent-Over Two-Arm Dumbbell Row Guide and Videos

    Bent-Over Two-Arm Dumbbell Row Guide and Videos

    Kroc Rows Vs Pendlay Rows

    Kroc Rows Vs. Pendlay Rows – Which One Is Best?

    Dumbbell Lying Pronation

    Dumbbell Lying Pronation Exercise Guide and Videos

    Side Delt Exercises

    Best Side Delt Exercises for Broader, More Powerful Shoulders

    Dumbbell Lying Rear Lateral Raise

    Dumbbell Lying Rear Lateral Raise Exercise Guide and Videos

    Long Head Triceps Exercises

    The Best Long Head Triceps Exercises for Thicker, Stronger Arms

    Dumbbell Lying Triceps Extension

    How To Do The Dumbbell Lying Triceps Extension

    Box Jump Exercise Guide

    Box Jump Exercise Guide – Muscles Worked, How-to, Tips, and Variations

    Dumbbell Iron Cross Exercise

    Dumbbell Iron Cross Exercise Guide and Videos

  • Food FactsTrending
  • News
    • Deals
    • Videos
    • Bodybuilding
    • CrossFit
    • Powerlifting
    • Strongman
    • MMA
  • Reviews
    • All
    • Lifting Gear & Accessories
    • Supplements
    Pre Workouts Without Creatine

    12 Best Pre-Workouts Without Creatine For 2021

    Powerlifting Singlet

    Powerlifting Singlets: All You Need To Know (Reviewed)

    Best Workout Shoes

    16 Best Workout Shoes For Better Performance in 2021

    Trending Tags

    • Ample
    • pre-workout
    • Meal Replacement
    • Pre-Kaged
No Result
View All Result
Fitness Volt: Bodybuilding, Fitness, CrossFit, Strongman and Powerlifting
  • Mr. OlympiaHOT
  • Workouts
    • All
    • Arms
    • Back
    • Cardio
    • Chest
    • Core
    • Legs
    • Workout Plans
    How to Avoid Hip Pain

    13 Ways to Avoid Hip Pain in The Gym

    Calisthenics Training

    Calisthenics Training: A Beginner’s Guide

    Metcon Exercises and Workouts:

    Fun and Effective Metcon Exercises and Workouts for Big Guys

  • Nutrition
    • All
    • Essential Nutrients
    • Nutrition Tips
    Ronnie Coleman

    What Did Ronnie Coleman Eat in His Prime?

    Healthiest Ways To Eat Eggs

    Eggcellent Nutrition Tips: Healthiest Ways To Eat Eggs

    Break Through Keto Plateau

    How To Break Through Keto Plateau and Achieve New Fat Loss

  • Training
  • Exercises
    • All
    • Arms
    • Back
    • Chest
    • Core
    • Legs and Glutes
    • Shoulders
    Bent-Over Two-Arm Dumbbell Row Guide and Videos

    Bent-Over Two-Arm Dumbbell Row Guide and Videos

    Kroc Rows Vs Pendlay Rows

    Kroc Rows Vs. Pendlay Rows – Which One Is Best?

    Dumbbell Lying Pronation

    Dumbbell Lying Pronation Exercise Guide and Videos

    Side Delt Exercises

    Best Side Delt Exercises for Broader, More Powerful Shoulders

    Dumbbell Lying Rear Lateral Raise

    Dumbbell Lying Rear Lateral Raise Exercise Guide and Videos

    Long Head Triceps Exercises

    The Best Long Head Triceps Exercises for Thicker, Stronger Arms

    Dumbbell Lying Triceps Extension

    How To Do The Dumbbell Lying Triceps Extension

    Box Jump Exercise Guide

    Box Jump Exercise Guide – Muscles Worked, How-to, Tips, and Variations

    Dumbbell Iron Cross Exercise

    Dumbbell Iron Cross Exercise Guide and Videos

  • Food FactsTrending
  • News
    • Deals
    • Videos
    • Bodybuilding
    • CrossFit
    • Powerlifting
    • Strongman
    • MMA
  • Reviews
    • All
    • Lifting Gear & Accessories
    • Supplements
    Pre Workouts Without Creatine

    12 Best Pre-Workouts Without Creatine For 2021

    Powerlifting Singlet

    Powerlifting Singlets: All You Need To Know (Reviewed)

    Best Workout Shoes

    16 Best Workout Shoes For Better Performance in 2021

    Trending Tags

    • Ample
    • pre-workout
    • Meal Replacement
    • Pre-Kaged
No Result
View All Result
Bodybuilding, Fitness, CrossFit, Strongman and Powerlifting
No Result
View All Result
Home Exercise Guides Core

Cross-Body Crunch Exercise Guide and Videos

The cross-body crunch is a simple exercise variation that is utilized to build and strength the muscles of the core like the abdominals and obliques. In this article, we've provided exercise instructions, tips, variations and how to effectively include this exercise in your training routine.

Matthew MagnantebyMatthew Magnante
November 23, 2020
Cross Body Crunch

Cross Body Crunch

  • 13shares
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Flipboard
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp
  • Telegram
  • Messenger

The cross-body crunch is an excellent bodyweight exercise that targets the muscles that make up the core. It can help to improve the six-pack muscles, strengthen the midsection, and improve the flexibility and mobility of the hips. Having a strong, functional core is essential if you want to build a strong, muscular body and it can help to prevent injury. This is a great exercise to add to your core training arsenal that almost anyone can do safely and effectively. 

In this article, we’ve explained how to do it with tips, variations, and how to include it in your workout routine. 

Here’s a guide to the cross-body crunch…

In This Exercise:

  • Target Muscle Group: Obliques, rectus abdominis
  • Type: Hypertrophy, strength, function
  • Mechanics: Isolation
  • Equipment: Exercise mat
  • Difficulty: Beginner

Muscles Worked 

There are a few different muscles involved in this exercise.

Obliques

The obliques are located on either side of the rectus abdominis and consist of the internal and external obliques that are considered part of the core group of muscles. The function of the obliques is trunk rotation and lateral trunk flexion. 

The cross-body crunch involves rotation of the trunk as it’s a knee to opposite elbow movement. 

Rectus Abdominis

The rectus abdominis is otherwise known as the abdominals or six-pack abs. The function of the rectus abdominis is trunk flexion and lateral trunk flexion. These muscles work by pulling up the ribs and pelvis to curve the back which is exactly what we’re doing with this exercise.

Hips

While not the primary focus in the cross-body crunch, the hips are involved in flexion and adduction of the thigh (toward the midline of the body) during this exercise. The hips consist of the glutes and inner thigh muscles. Although there’s no real resistance to significantly strengthen these muscles during the cross-body crunch, it can help to improve mobility and flexibility. 

The hip flexors can take over during crunches which, is not ideal and that’s why it’s important to develop a strong core. 

How To Do The Cross-Body Crunch

The cross-body crunch is a rather simple exercise but it’s a little more challenging than the basic abdominal crunch although not by much unless you have severely restricted hip mobility. Here are step-by-step instructions for the cross-body crunch. 

  1. Lie face-up on the floor with your knees bent so that your feet are flat on the ground. 
  2. Gently place your fingers behind your ears so that your elbows are pointing laterally away from your body as shown in the video. 
  3. To do the cross-body crunch, tense your midsection to keep your core muscles tight, then bring your left elbow and right knee together directly above your belly button. You want to twist your trunk to meet the elbow to the knee.
  4. Return to the starting position and repeat with the right elbow and left knee. 
  5. Complete the desired number of reps by alternating.

Here’s a video example… 

Cross-body crunch tips

  • Never pull on your head while performing any variation of a crunch; this is both dangerous and improper execution of the exercise.
  • You want to keep your core tense the entire time you’re performing this exercise. This ensures that your abs are maximally engaged, and prevents excessive rounding of the back.
  • Use a moderate tempo to ensure you’re maintaining tension on the core. You want to keep the set going to really feel the burn and challenge the muscles. 
  • Make sure to rotate your trunk as you curl up to engage the obliques. 
  • You want to bring the elbow and knee together at the same time to maximize the muscle contraction of the midsection.
  • Don’t just drop back down to the mat; slowly return yourself to the starting position during the negatives to keep the tension on the core. 

Related: Train Your Obliques For A Killer Core

3 Variations

There are so many different variations of the crunch with the cross-body crunch being one. But there’s also variations of the cross-body crunch that involve trunk rotation and lower-body involvement.  

Hanging oblique knee raise

This is a more difficult exercise than the cross-body crunch because the heavy weight of the legs is used as resistance with the body hanging from a bar. You want to do these nice and controlled to avoid swinging which defeats the purpose of the exercise. Also, you want to lift the legs above 90 degrees to maximally contract the obliques but it’s also a great way to strengthen the hip flexors. 

To do it:

  1. Hang from a bar and make sure to keep your shoulders down and un-shrugged to prevent your head from sinking into your neck. 
  2. Twist to one side, bend your hips and knees and raise your legs as high as you can while contracting the core muscles. The idea is to curl the pelvis up to expose the glutes and not just to raise the legs to 90 degrees. 
  3. Return to the starting position but don’t fully extend your legs. 
  4. Rotate to the other side and repeat. 

You can also use a captain’s chair/power tower if this variation is too challenging. 

Lying bent-knee oblique twist

This lying bent-knee oblique twist only involves lower body movement to facilitate rotation of the trunk. It’s also a very simple exercise that most people can do regardless of experience level. 

Russian twist

The Russian twist is a phenomenal exercise and one of the most popular for working the obliques. You can do it with or without weight but if you want a jacked core; make sure to include this one in your routine. 

The cable Russian twist is also an amazing exercise for building the obliques. 

How To Incorporate The Cross-Body Crunch Into Your Training Routine

The cross-body crunch is a core exercise and should be incorporated into your exercise routine accordingly… alongside your other core movements. But it also makes for a perfect standalone core exercise that you can do on days when you’re lying around and want to crank out a bunch of reps to really challenge yourself. 

But if you have access to a gym, then we’d recommend you be a little strategic about how you train your abs for best results. 

We’d suggest starting with a hanging leg raise variation because they are typically more challenging due to the heavy weight of the legs. The cross-body crunch should be the next exercise that you do because it involves the engagement of both the upper and lower body working together. After that, something like a basic crunch is ideal because it focuses on just the upper half movement. Then a good way to end your workouts is to utilize a standing core exercise to emphasize the functional aspect of training your midsection.

Sets/reps

For the cross-body crunch, it’s best to take your sets to failure because it’s honestly not the most challenging exercise that you can do. It’s more of a basic variation and you want to get the most out of it each time you include it in your routine because, at some point, this exercise will become too easy. When this happens, you’ll want to choose a more advanced variation to continue making progress. 

3-4 sets to failure should be sufficient.

Wrapping Up

The cross-body crunch is a great basic core exercise that anyone can do to improve their midsection. Not to mention, it only requires your body weight and a soft surface which means it can be done almost anywhere. It’s more of a beginner variation but you can definitely scale up if needed with any of the variations provided.

Related: The Cable Side Crunch Exercise Guide and Videos

For the latest news and updates please follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
  • 13shares
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Reddit
  • Flipboard
  • LinkedIn
  • WhatsApp
  • Telegram
  • Messenger

Join our list

Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously

Categories: Core Exercise Guides
Tags: CoreCross-Body CrunchHypertrophyisolationobliquesrectus abdominisStrength
Previous Post

Jon Skywalker – Complete Profile: Height, Weight, Biography

Next Post

Breaking Bench: What You Need to Know About the Bench Press

Matthew Magnante

Matthew Magnante

Matthew Magnante is the senior writer for Fitness Volt. He has had a passion for fitness since elementary school and continues to research and learn how to build muscle effectively through training and diet. He also loves to help others to achieve their fitness goals and spread the knowledge where needed. Matthew's other passions include learning about mindfulness, strolling through nature, and always working to improve overall.

Related Posts

Dumbbell Lying Rear Lateral Raise
Shoulders

Dumbbell Lying Rear Lateral Raise Exercise Guide and Videos

Strength Feats
Motivation

6 Strength Feats You Probably Don’t Know About

Dumbbell Lying Triceps Extension
Arms

How To Do The Dumbbell Lying Triceps Extension

Dumbbell Iron Cross Exercise
Shoulders

Dumbbell Iron Cross Exercise Guide and Videos

Powerlifting Training Methods For Bodybuilders
Workout Plans

Five Powerlifting Training Methods That Bodybuilders Should Use

Dumbbell Incline Row Back Exercise
Back

Dumbbell Incline Row Exercise Guide and Videos

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Larry Wheels Deadlift PR

Larry Wheels Hits All-Time Personal Record With Earth Shattering 855lb Deadlift Triple, Gets Injured

Ronnie Coleman

What Did Ronnie Coleman Eat in His Prime?

Blessing Awodibu

Blessing Awodibu Is A Shredded 287lb As He Begins Prep For Pro Debut

Laura Bass

Former Bodybuilder Laura Bass Dies at 49

Ben Chow Luke Sandoe

Ben Chow, Fouad Abiad Respond To New Details of Luke Sandoe’s Death

The Rock

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Reveals Current Workout Routine

Jessica Fithen

Strongwoman Jessica Fithen Scores New World Record With 100kg Block Press

Iain Valliere

Iain Valliere: Beating Hunter Labrada and Dexter Jackson ‘Was Like My Olympia Win’

Crossfit Games

2021 CrossFit Games Scheduled for July 27th-August 1st

Recent Reviews

Pre Workouts Without Creatine

12 Best Pre-Workouts Without Creatine For 2021

Powerlifting Singlet

Powerlifting Singlets: All You Need To Know (Reviewed)

Best Workout Shoes

16 Best Workout Shoes For Better Performance in 2021

Fitness Volt

At FitnessVolt.com our mission is to educate and inform you about the latest in professional bodybuilding, fitness, and sports-related content. We believe you should have the best information at your fingertips to help you reach your fitness goals and to stay up to date on everything happening in the bodybuilding, fitness and strength sports industry... Read more.

Email: sm(at)fitnessvolt.com

Disclosure: FitnessVolt.com has an affiliate relationship with different brands and is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. However, our reviews are based on well research backed analysis.
FitnessVolt.com - 1700 Lincoln St. Denver, CO. 

Follow Us

Trending Topics

  • Mr. Olympia 2020
  • Bodybuilding
  • Strongman
  • Powerlifting
  • CrossFit
  • At Home Workouts
  • Bodyweight Exercises
  • Best Pre-workouts
  • Boost Testosterone
  • German Volume Training
  • Protein-Packed Foods
  • Jefferson Deadlift
  • What Is Hypertrophy

Calculators

    • IF Calculator
    • TDEE Calculator
    • Calorie Calculator
    • Keto Calculator
    • RMR Calculator
    • Macronutrient Calculator
    • Creatine Calculator
    • Wilks Calculator
    • EER Calculator
    • FFMI Calculator
    • IBW Calculator
    • LBM Calculator
    • Fat Intake Calculator

 

  • Food Nutrition Analysis
  • Carb Cycling Calculator
  • Weight Gain Calculator
  • Calories Burned Calculator
  • Strength Standards
  • One Rep Max Calculator
  • Body Fat Calculator
  • EER Calculator
  • Weight Loss Percentage
  • Treadmill Calorie Calculator
  • Body Surface Area Calculator
  • Running Pace Calculator
  • Bench Press Calculator
  • Protein Calculator
  • Water Intake Calculator
  • About
  • Write For Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Syndication
  • Scholarship
  • Sitemap
  • DMCA
  • Copyrights
  • Terms
  • Privacy

© Copyright 2010 - 2021 Fitnes Volt IBC. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Mr. Olympia
  • Bodybuilding
  • Powerlifting
  • Strongman
  • CrossFit
  • Workouts
  • Exercise Guides
    • Arms
    • Back
    • Chest
    • Core
    • Legs and Glutes
    • Shoulders
  • Training
  • Nutrition
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Diet
    • News
    • Motivation
    • Videos
    • Food Facts
    • Deals
    • Fitness Calculator

© Copyright 2010 - 2021 Fitnes Volt IBC. All Rights Reserved.

72418