Decline Crunch

How to perform

1. 01Secure your legs at the end of the decline bench and lie down.
2. 02Now place your hands lightly on either side of your head keeping your elbows in. Tip: Don't lock your fingers behind your head.
3. 03While pushing the small of your back down in the bench to better isolate your abdominal muscles, begin to roll your shoulders off it.
4. 04Continue to push down as hard as you can with your lower back as you contract your abdominals and exhale. Your shoulders should come up off the bench only about four inches, and your lower back should remain on the bench. At the top of the movement, contract your abdominals hard and keep the contraction for a second. Tip: Focus on slow, controlled movement - don't cheat yourself by using momentum.
5. 05After the one second contraction, begin to come down slowly again to the starting position as you inhale.
6. 06Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Form cues

• —Lead with the elbows and finish by squeezing the target muscle.
• —Control the lowering phase — that is where most of the growth stimulus lives.

Common mistakes

• —Using momentum instead of the target muscle.
• —Cutting the range of motion short to add load.