Cable Crunch – Exercise of the Week

To target your abdominal and core muscles using the cable pulley machine, the cable crunch is arguably the ideal exercise. It works with your natural range of motion to engage and work your abdominals – causing them to stretch and contract with the crunching motion. Consider it as an exercise to add to your workout routine to help target and train your core muscles.

Cable Crunch

Set a rope attachment high up on a cable pulley machine. Make sure that you can manage the weight that you select on the weight stack – ensuring that it is not too heavy to begin while you get used to the movement. Kneel on the floor in front of the rope (you may want to place a mat under your knees) and grasp it with one hand on each end. Pull it to lower it down until it is in line with your face. Slightly bend at the hips (you ideally want to enter into a hinge motion) and this is your starting position. Make sure you are both comfortable and solid in this positon before you begin the movement.

When ready, keep your hips steady and instead use your waist and abdominal muscles to pull the rope further down. Your body (but not your hips) should stretch downwards so that your elbows come close to / touch off your thighs. As you are completing this part of the exercise, you should exhale and hold the position for a second or two at the bottom of the movement. Return to the starting position but make sure to remain tension on your abdominal muscles at all times to maximise the muscle building benefits of the cable crunch exercise. As always, ask any of our friendly fitness team should you need any advice or even a demonstration to complete this exercise.

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