Crunches are a misunderstood subject. If you are looking to strengthen (Power-lifting, martial arts etc) the abdominal region, aimlessly doing sets of 100 crunches is NOT the way to go about it.
(Skip down 3 paragraphs if TLDR). Firstly though, I need to get this off my chest. For the love of god, why do so many people obsess with abs? Its like some epidemic contaminating society followed only closely by skinny jeans and straight caps. Fuck me dead. Chicks may like a six-pack, but they also like Tiffany's and they also like big dicks. Moral of the story? Get the fuck off the ground you twat because your wasting your damn time son.
In a nutshell, when you workout you are basically exploiting the ROM for a particular muscle through a particular movement which in addition to subjecting it to unfamiliar stresses, muscular (hypertrophy) and CNS (neurological) adaptions occur as a result. To all you ass-monkeys out there, we don't have muscle as humans, so we can workout and be "huuuge cuntz to pull da bitchez". We have them so we can move. Muscles allow our bones to rotate, adduct and abduct etc. You get the picture. What's my point? My point is that muscles have a purpose, and to properly train these muscles we must exploit their unique characteristics. Eg. Chins are an effective bicep movement because they exploit the fully supinated position of the forearm which fully engages the bicep muscle. Because supinating the forearm is the natural function of the biceps-brachii. So are we on the same page here? To properly work a muscle, we must work with it.
Relating this all back to abs. Whats the sole purpose/function of abdominals? If you are thinking its for "da chix bru", go jump off a bridge you useless maggot. The principal task of the abs is to stabilize specifically the lumbar vertebrae and the whole fucking mid-section of your body. When I say mid section im not just talking about your rectus abdominis, im talking about your entire core. Namely, the rectus, the internal and external obliques running across the lateral aspect of the abdomen, the transversalis abdominis, and the muscles of the floor of the abdominal cavity. They stabilize in an isometric contraction. Now when I say isometric, im talking about a static position in which the muscle is fully contracted without movement of the joints or muscle itself. Think of doing a regular curl and stopping half-way through the concentric and holding it. That's isometric resistance. Got it fool?
Okay so (finally), why are crunches useless? They are useless ineffective because they do not adhere to the natural role of the abdominal muscle, which sole function is to stabilize the entire mid-section including lumbar region in an isometric contraction. Therefore it would only make sense to train them accordingly; through isometric resistance training. Crunches are NOT isometric movements. Feel free to quote me on this, because im willing to put my money on it - From an anatomical standpoint, the BEST exercise for your abs is (correctly performed) major compound movements like the squat, deadlift and OHP. They all force your midsection to stabilize the weight, therefore making the abs do what it does best. Planks and ab-rollers also fall into this category. There's also probably a million other variations and exercises too. Special mention to the front squat, which freaking demolishes your core! So whats so wrong about crunches? Okay, so maybe I went off on one of my signature rants again, over-exaggerating and blowing it out of proportion. The point I am ultimately trying to press here, is that if your doing heavy squats, deadlifts and OHP's, they will suffice and further ab work is not necessary until you are a well seasoned lifter. And it all comes back to basic fact that compounds are better than isolation's (crunches etc) at doing just about everything. Those 3 (and other isometric exercises mentioned etc) will do more for your core than crunches will ever do, therefore rendering them useless.
Mark Rippetoe covers this in SS. Don't be like "WHERS DA PubMed BRA?" Because dude, its Rippetoe, he is a genius. Don't fuck with him. He explains it much more in-depth using sophisticated language and particularity focuses on the relationship of the lumbar curve to the abs and finally their relation to the deadlift and squat.
Link - http://startingstrength.com/articles/abs_rippetoe.pdf
So to end, crunches are not the most effective way to hit your abs, period. Go squat, deadlift or hold some heavy planks before you even think about doing crunches. Now in saying this im not drawing the definitive conclusion that they are absolute garbage and should never be performed. I'm saying they have their place, but its way way way behind exercises that utilize isometric resistance for your abdominal's.
- Later homies
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