Cable crunch

The cable crunch trains the abs with a load you can adjust in small steps, which is hard to do with bodyweight crunches. The cable keeps tension on the muscle through the whole range.

It works best as a heavy, slow movement. If you can do 25 reps easily, the weight is too light.

Sets, reps and RIR

Stop the set when position breaks, not when the muscle burns. Quality of position is the whole point.

RIR means reps in reserve: how many you could still have done when you racked it. RIR 2 is two short of failure.

How to do it

1. Kneel under a high cable with a rope attachment. Hold the rope beside your head, with the hands staying next to the ears.
2. Set your hips so they stay still. The movement comes from the spine, not from the hips.
3. Curl your ribs toward your pelvis, rounding your back, until your elbows come near your knees.
4. Pause for a second at the bottom, then return slowly until you feel the stretch through the abs.
5. Do 10 to 15 reps. Rest 60 to 90 seconds.

Common mistakes

Moving at the hips

If the hips go back and forth, you are doing a hip hinge with the cable and the abs get little. Keep the hips still and curl the spine.

Pulling with the arms

The rope is a handle, not a weight to pull. Keep the hands fixed beside the head and think ribs to pelvis.

Too heavy, too fast

A load that makes you swing will not train the abs. Drop the weight and take two seconds on the way down.

How it differs from the neighbouring variants

Hanging leg raises train the abs and hip flexors with bodyweight and need grip and shoulder strength. Cable crunches are easier to load and to repeat for the same weight each week.

A plank trains the abs to resist movement. Cable crunches train them to create movement. Most programs benefit from both.

What it suits

It suits you if you want to progress the abs with weights you can write down, like any other lift. Two to four sets at the end of a session is enough.

Muscles worked

Primary: Abs.

Secondary: Obliques.

Estimate your one-rep max

Epley's formula, from a set you have actually done. It is an estimate, and it drifts above eight reps, so keep the input between one and twelve.

What it is called elsewhere

• Norsk Kabel crunch
• Svenska Kabelcrunch
• Dansk Kabel crunch
• Deutsch Crunch am Kabel
• Español Crunch en polea
• Italiano Crunch ai cavi
• Português Abdominal na polia
• Русский Скручивания на блоке
• Français Crunch à la poulie

Related core exercises

• Hanging leg raise
• Hanging knee raise
• Pelvic floor squeeze
• Plank
• Side plank
• Sit-ups

athlate logs this exercise, keeps the numbers, and tells you what you lifted last time.