Machine Crunch

How to do it

1. Sit on the machine and adjust the seat so the chest pad sits across your upper chest, not your throat.
2. Hook your hands or arms into the handles and plant your feet firmly on the floor or foot pads.
3. Brace your core and curl your ribcage down toward your hips, keeping the motion in the abs.
4. Pause briefly at the bottom of the curl, squeezing the abs hard before reversing the motion.
5. Return slowly to the start over 2 to 3 seconds, keeping tension on the abs the entire way up.
6. Repeat for 10 to 15 controlled reps, never letting the weight stack slam back to rest between reps.

Common mistakes

• Pulling with the arms or shoulders instead of curling with the abs, which removes the load from the target muscle.
• Using a heavy stack and a tiny range of motion, which trains momentum rather than the abs.
• Letting the weight stack snap back at the top, killing the slow lowering where most growth tension lives.
• Setting the chest pad too high on the throat, which makes the lifter brace with the neck instead of the core.