Do Bicycle Crunches Hurt Your Back

If you repeatedly have pain while performing crunches cease the activity and seek physician consultation.

Do bicycle crunches hurt your back. I take some classes at my local ymca and at the end there is ab work. When the lower back rounds it has the potential to push fluid from the intervertebral disc space out and may compress the nerves. This makes bicycle crunches a bit harder than. When performing a crunch the low back will round.

Experiencing back pain while doing crunches could be a precursor to a serious injury. To do an elevated bicycle crunch lie with your back on an exercise bench so your legs are hanging over both sides. The difference is that you always have both feet off the ground during these bicycle crunches. You will perform this exercise as a variation on ab crunches.

What really blows my mind though is when people who have been in a seated position all day long head to the gym where they perform seated military presses seated lat pulldowns and abdominal exercises with the knees up. Bicycle crunches russian twists. Years ago i could do bicycle crunches so i think i m leaning toward my core being so weak. Lie on a bench to do bicycle crunches for a more challenging workout.

I am able to do the other moves without back pain. Bicycle crunches with bicycle crunches or bicycle kicks you extend your legs into the air like your pedaling a bicycle. Then pull a knee up towards your chest as you bring your opposite elbow towards the knee. Crunches should not cause your low back to hurt.

The repeated force of crunches can cause the discs in your back to bulge the gel nucleus of the disc bulges pressing on nerves causing lower back pain and potentially causing a herniated disc. Most of us sit for all or part of the day placing the hamstrings and hip flexors in a shortened position which can lead to low back pain or just a general sense of tightness. Back in 2001 the american council on exercise actually deemed the bicycle crunch the no. 1 exercise for strengthening the rectus abdominus the abdominal muscles that make up the six pack.

Physiologists personal trainers and physical therapists are quickly moving away from the traditional crunch as an ab exercise as there s a strong association between the move and back problems such as herniated discs.