Hello to fitness lovers! Are you looking for the best ways to do bicycle crunches? You are at the right place. Are you doing continuous workouts but not getting results as you want? Add bicycle crunches to your workout routine. You need not worry about anything else.
I’m writing this article for the people who are struggling hard to lose weight, working out hard for fitness and perfect body shape. Nothing is impossible in this growing world. One important thing is that you must have the motivation to achieve your goal, be passionate, and that’s all.
If you think that you can achieve your goal in just a blink of your eyes, you are wrong. It is impossible to have anything so early. Have patience, work hard, and stay positive, as positivity is the most critical factor. You people must know one thing that positivity is the key to success. Your mind responds to the things you think; if you feel you are gaining weight, you will start gaining weight.
On the other hand, if you think you are losing weight, your mind will respond, and your body will start losing weight? Whether you are on a weight loss journey or a weight gain journey, think of the things you want. Think positive, and you will achieve your gain. So, as we are talking about Bicycle crunches, we must know what it is? How to do this (bicycle crunches) workout? Is this helpful for weight loss or not? What are the benefits of doing bicycle crunches? There is a lot of questions regarding this workout.
I will try to elaborate on all the answers to questions you people have in your minds in this single article. I hope this article will help you solve your issues regarding Bicycle crunches.
So before starting this article, let me tell you something about this workout (bicycle crunches)
Bicycle Crunches workout:
Bicycle crunches are a kind of workout where you have to lie your face up with extended legs, feet together, and hands behind your head with wide elbows. Keeping left leg extended, raise right foot straight up towards the roof, and left foot a few inches off the floor.
Adding bicycle crunches to your workout routine helps to increase core strength, improves your stability and flexibility, and also helps to slim down your waist. Bicycle crunches work your Abs and oblique. Bicycle crunches will boost your heart rate and burns so many calories because your body is constantly moving in this workout. Doing crunches until you can’t stand up straight is also not enough to have a slim waist. You begin to build a leaner, tighter-looking waist by strengthening the right muscles, the oblique, and the TVA.
Mistakes to avoid while doing bicycle crunches:
Are you going to add bicycle crunches to your routine? Don’t make these mistakes.
1. Sprinting through your crunches:
This is the biggest mistake. The abdominal muscles (postural stabilizing muscles) are relatively small. When we speed through our abs workouts, some of those larger muscles can take charge off, and with pure momentum, these move our body. And the results? You don’t get the maximum benefit from these bicycle crunches.
2. Tugging on your neck:
If you find yourself stretching your neck to get your knee and elbow near together, it’s time to back off. Instead, alleviate your fingers, and rest them smoothly on the back of your head so you won’t be convinced to ‘’cheat’’ and use them to push too far.
3. Relying on momentum:
In the upper body, we have to use the latissimus dorsi to swing the arms toward our feet and use that momentum to masticate our body. Slow down instead of the strength of your abs.
4. Letting your hip flexors take over:
Occhipinti says: when you try to do too many crunches or go too fast, your hip flexors like to give your abs a break.
To avoid all these mistakes, I want to give you people a bit of advice, ‘’Slow down the movement’’. ___Sometimes painfully slow__. Truly, we are only using our abdominals to generate the movement.
What happens if I do bicycle crunches every day?
We all know excess of everything is terrible. The same for the bicycle crunches,.
if you do bicycle crunches every day, it will lose your energy, feel back pain, and lead to many more complications. Bicycle crunches are hard on the back. These crunches are putting excessive strain on your spinal cord from the repetitive motion of extending and bending your spine. Because the motion of crunching may lead people to cramp their butt, doing bicycle crunches every day can create tension in the hips that may even result in lower back pain.
So, do this kind of workout in moderation or as recommended by the fitness experts.
What Muscle do bicycle crunches work?
As far as we talk about this workout, a question arises in our mind that what muscle do bicycle crunches work? So, in bicycle crunches, the primary muscle worked are the rectus abdominus, hips, and oblique.
In bicycle crunches, you are keeping your legs off the ground that targets your lower abs. This rotation activates your oblique, and the pedaling of your legs stimulates the hips. As long as you have got the proper form, bicycle crunches are multi-targeted ab workout, and this workout can be highly effective.
Rich says, ‘’it’s a very dynamic movement’’. If you do this workout (bicycle crunches) correctly, it can strengthen your lower abs and oblique.
How to do bicycle crunches?
Corey Phelps, a Washington D.C.-based NASM-certified personal trainer and founder of the online platform Cultivate365 says if you want a six-pack, crunches won’t quite cut it. For truly sculpted abs, the side of your core needs to be strong. One of the best moves to hit those sides is bicycle crunches.
Eb says: Firstly, you have to think of a starting position not as a rest position, but as one of work. Mostly, you are thinking of starting from a hallow hold (and I teach the bicycle crunches with this as the beginning point). This mental approach makes sure that your lower back is finely pressed into the ground and your abs are continuously working, even between reps.
Steps involved:
Following steps are involved in this (bicycle crunches workout):
- With the lower back pressed into your mat, lie flat on the floor.
- Interlace your fingers to create a Cradle and place it behind your head. Your elbows should be out of your peripheral vision.
What is a repetition?
A rep or repetition is one complete exercise movement.
What is a set?
A set consists of several repetitions.
To a table position, float your legs up and ankles in line with your knees.
- Engage abdominals
- Lift your head so that your shoulder blades are hovering off the ground.
- Lift your head so that your shoulder blades are hovering off the ground.
- Now bring your right elbow towards your left knee.
- Twist at the ribs and lead your shoulder rather than your elbow.
- Break off.
- Now repeat on the other side.
- Continue for full rep count.
- Do 3 sets of 20 reps.
Give it a Read: Cross Crunches- Incredible Facts: Step by Step Exercise Guide
A Better way to do a Bicycle crunch:
No doubt you have done bicycle crunches before. But have you ever done these crunches on the bench?
Performing the exercise while uplifted allows your legs to move more freely and your hips to travel through a more extensive range of motion.
According to MH fitness director BJ Gaddour, you can make bicycle crunches better by doing them while lying on a bench. This position allows your legs to move more freely and increase the range of motion at your hips.Far from being a great grill to train the abs, this move improves the rotation of the thoracic spine, i.e. (mid-back or upper back), mobility of the hip, and cross-body coordination.
So you may think how many sets/reps are recommended?
Do sets of 10-20 reps per side or work for one to two minutes. Or you can either do it for straight sets for 30-60 seconds of rest between them. Or, as a core move, you can plug it into a total body circuit. You can use it even as a warmup drill or as a filler between sets of multi-joints and heavy moves.
Give it a read: The 25 Best abs Exercises.
Resting 30 seconds between each set, you can do 5 sets of 20 reps per side. Or in 1 or 2 minutes, you can perform as many reps as possible. Now take a rest for 30 seconds. Rest is a must before doing it again.
If you don’t want to do these bicycle crunches as a straight-set, then as your core movement, you can plug the body into a total-body circuit.
If you are a beginner, you can do sloppy bicycle crunches all day. But at the beginning level, aiming to start in a hollow hold will have your abs burning after barely a minute. Instead of lying on the ground like a fish, return to the hollow hold after each rep.
Move with intention:
Eb says: Take your time. When you crunch up with opposite knee and elbow touch, forcing your abs to continue to flex through rotation, try to pause for a millisecond. This will ascertain that you do not depend on momentum to get moving you and challenges your abs to control the whole motion.
Stay relaxed:
Eb says: The most important thing during the whole workout is staying relaxed. Keep your neck relaxed. Like all crunches, the drawback of bicycle crunch is how easy it is to shift your neck into cervical flexion (later, leading to a sore neck). We want this motion to come from our abs, not our channel, so imagine an apple or a tennis ball between your neck and chin. For each set, maintain that space for life.
Important and final note:
You have to forget continuing reps. try to start by working for 3 to 4 sets of 40 seconds on, 20 off.
Samuel says: If you will manage time, this helps prevent you from rushing.
‘’ Instead of counting things down and getting sloppy, you can focus on the quality of the core movement and technique.
Some other ways to do bicycle crunches:
Crunches are exceptionally functional compound-muscle ab exercise. If you perform bycycle crunches correctly, these crunches will target your upper abdominal, lower abdominal, oblique, and lower back muscles.
You will have less risk of injury than traditional sit-ups. After reading this article, you will ensure the correct crunch form, how to avoid neck pain, and how to build your core strength. Once you have understood the basic crunch, you will have no difficulty doing these crunches. You will enjoy this workout. There are a lot of crunches, including reverse crunches, bicycle crunches, and side crunches, that further target specific ab muscles.
Doing a basic crunch:
Using the Exercise mat, lie on your back:
- Using a mat, thick towel, or carpeted surface is a better option than lying on a hard, bare floor.
- To expand your workout and engage your entire core, you may also do crunches on an equilibrium ball.
- For more resistance, you can sap doing crunches on a rejected exercise bench.
For your feet flat on the floor, bend your knees:
- One thing that you have to keep in mind is that your feet and knees should be about hip-width apart.
- Position your feet in such a way that your heels are about 12 to 18 in (30 to 46 cm) from your tailbone.
In front of your chest cross your arms:
- You could also place your fingertips behind your neck or head if it feels more restful. As you perform a crunch, just be sure not to tug your head or neck up.
- If you are tugging your neck or head, it can burden your back. To skip this risk entirely, cross your arms over your chest.
- You could hold a 5 to 10 pounds (2.3 to 4.5 kg) plate weight over your chest for increased resistance.
- Keep your elbows bent, extended to your sides, and level with your ears if you place your hands behind your head or neck. Letting your arms close in around your head, stir up your head to incline forward.
With a smooth controlled motion, lift your shoulder blades off of the mat:
- First, you have to inhale, then exhale as you grab your ab muscles and raise your torso. You have to lift yourself just enough to raise your shoulder blades off of the floor. Once your shoulders are raised, break off and hold that position for 1 to 2 seconds.
- Lifting your whole torso off of the floor can cause lower back stress. Moreover, your hip flexors take charge of when you sit up all the way. A crunch targets the abs more beneficially than a full sit-up.
- Keep in mind, your lower back, tailbone, and feet should maintain contact with the mat at all times.
- You have to keep your neck relaxed rather than tucking in your chin. Try to retain an apple-sized space between your chin and your chest. Looking at the roof can help keep you from curling your neck too much.
- If you are lifting your feet off the floor throughout the rep, put your feet under something to keep your feet on the ground.
With a slow steady motion, lower yourself back down:
- As you slowly lower your torso, inhale smoothly. Don’t just back off down to the mat. Smooth, controlled motions operate your ab muscles more beneficially and help stave off injury.
- After lowering your upper body to the mat, before doing another crunch, break off for a moment. If you rush into the next rep, you’ll end up using momentum to lift yourself instead of your muscles. You must know gallop (rushed) movements can also lead to back injuries.
- Try doing a set of 12 crunches. For a complete ab workout, you might do 3 sets of 12 standard crunches, 3 sets of reverse crunches, and 3 sets of bicycle or side crunches.
Bicycle Crunches Benefits:
Do you know bicycle crunches crowned the best for your six-pack muscles? This simple workout (bicycle crunches) packs in tons of benefits. Some of the benefits of this simple workout are as follows:
Strong core = Strong body:
A strong core helps your body and your overall health in several ways. This workout (bicycle crunches) will strengthen your core muscles, and you will notice better endurance (ideal for workout). A strong core will help in better posture. Reduced back pain, and reduced risk of injury.
You can get visible results faster by doing bicycle crunches:
In bicycle crunches, abdominal muscles are targeted, namely the rectus abdominis and the oblique muscle. ‘’ when we train any muscle, we build power and hypertrophy (size).
Bicycle crunches boost coordination:
Bicycle crunches will help you boost coordination. In bicycle crunches, movements force you to use opposite arms and legs at the same time. This can help you improve your coordination.
Who should not do bicycle crunches?
Occhipinti says: There are certainly times when you will want to pump the breaks on bicycle crunches. These breaks could include you if:
- You have a herniated disk.
- It hurts (painful) when you perform spinal flexion (forward bending).
- If you are in the second or third trimester of pregnancy, you must avoid spine exercises and lie on your back. So for these people, instead of core exercises, side-lying or quadruped is recommended.
If you are willing to slim down, consider yourself a bicycle crunch pro. Practice proper exercise and do not overdo it, and you will get a stronger core in no time.
How many calories do bicycle crunches burn?
Bicycle crunches are the workout (exercise) that you can do for your abs. At the same time, it helps to target the rectus, abdominal, and oblique muscles.
If you are doing 20 crunches in a minute, then per minute, you will burn 3 calories—some people target to burn 100 calories after this workout.
So the question is that how many crunches burn 100 calories?
Whenever we are on a weight loss or weight gain journey, our main concern is calories. The whole day we spent thinking, how many calories I consumed till now? So do not worry, I’m going to tell you a trick that how we can estimate calories burnt after a workout.
So, to calculate how many calories you burn after performing 100 crunches, all you need is to multiply the number of calories you burn in a minute by factor 3.3, which is how many minutes it takes to perform 100 crunches. An average person might burn 16.6 calories.
Are bicycle crunches good for weight loss or not?
The bicycle crunch workout will help you burn that Obdurate (stubborn) belly fat while helping you with maintaining a good stance. One thing to tell you that only a workout will never let your weight loss. Eating healthy is essential.
You have to follow a diet plan of proper guidance with a workout. Combined with a healthy eating plan that promotes health and weight loss, doing the workout will help you get rid of belly fat in no time at all.
Conclusion:
At the end of this article, my advice to you people is that do not overthink. You are not too fat; you always have time to lose weight. Nothing is impossible. If you aim to do anything, you can. Stay positive, stay motivated, make healthy eating habits, and the most important thing – do walk daily. Forget to eat but don’t forget to walk. The walking will keep your life healthily.
Also Read: AMRAP Workout- Best Training Protocol, Benefits, and More