Decline Crunch

How to do it

1. Set a decline bench to a moderate angle and hook your feet under the roller pads.
2. Lie back with your knees bent and your lower back resting on the bench.
3. Cross your arms over your chest or rest your fingertips beside your ears without pulling on the neck.
4. Exhale and curl your shoulder blades off the bench by shortening the abdominals.
5. Stop once the upper back has left the pad, keeping the lower back in contact.
6. Inhale and lower slowly to the start without resting at the bottom.

Common mistakes

• Pulling on the head with the hands, which strains the neck and hides how little the abdominals moved.
• Curling all the way up into a sit-up, which hands the work to the hip flexors.
• Setting the decline too steep too soon, which usually turns into a swinging half rep.
• Dropping back to the bench between reps, which discards the eccentric and the tension with it.