How to Perform Standing Bicycle Crunch

Standing Bicycle Crunches, also known as criss-cross exercise, is one of the most effective ab workouts. It also engages the deep abs and the obliques. There is no need for any specific equipment, but you can perform it efficiently at home by following the expert tips.

How to Perform Standing Bicycle Crunches?

Standing Bicycle Crunch is proven to be much useful than standard crunches. Follow these steps to perform standing bicycle crunches properly;

• Stand straight with your feet are shoulder-width apart and your feet are pointing outward.
• Place the fingers of both your hands behind your head. Your elbows are pointing outwards to the sides of your body. Inhale deeply to contract your core muscles.
• Now start exercising by raising your left knee upward to your chest height and simultaneously twist your torso to the left. Bring your right elbow towards the raised knee so that you feel the crunch. Keep exhaling during this movement and go back to the starting position.
• Now repeat the same on the other side and keep switching the sides until you complete your repetitions. Otherwise, you can complete repetitions on one side and then on the other side.

Tips for Bicycle Crunches:

• If you are a beginner and can’t balance the exercise position, try practicing standing bicycle crunch with one hand against a wall.
• Engage your ab muscles as much as you can for the best results.
• Keep your movements slow and steady.
• You can pair this workout with some other effective ab workouts like Exercises with an ab roller wheel.
• A combination of ab exercises gives you better and faster results.

Primary Muscles Engaged in Standing Bicycle Crunches

If you have ever tried crunches, you feel your all ab muscles are engaged. The ACE (America Council on Exercise) announced bicycle crunches as one of the most effective abdominal exercises. As compared to 12 other belly exercises, these movements activate abdominal muscles in a better way. The first targeted muscles are all abs muscles. Although there are no such abdominal exercises that engage all abdomen muscles, standing bicycle crunches engage all muscles.

Abdominal Muscles:

Similar to the standard crunch, bicycle crunch lifts the torso and contracts the abdominal muscles. The front ab muscles – rectus abdominis is activated, which build up the “six-pack” muscles. Rectus Abdominis has one upper region and one lower region, simultaneously engaged during the standing bicycle crunch exercise. Primarily the torso twisting portion of crunch activates all the muscles.

Moreover, the external oblique- your waist’s side muscles also come into play when you rotate your body to bring your elbows towards your opposite knees. These muscles are involved in turning your body from side to side. These muscles also help you to bend sideways at the waist. Strong obliques mean a stable and well-aligned spine.

Quadriceps:

As you pedal your legs, the Rectus Femoris helps in the extension of the knee and hip. This muscle located in the middle thigh, one of the four quadriceps muscles. This muscle intensively engaged during standing bicycle crunches as compared to the standard crunches.

Intercostals:

Intercostal are the muscles between the ribs. These muscles make the chest wall and rotate the torso during the bicycle crunch. You get better breathing during exercise due to these muscles. Elevating and depressing ribs engage intercostals. During the training, engage these muscles for a better breathing pattern of exhaling and inhaling. It will enable you to take more oxygen to work muscles with every inhale.

Benefits of Standing Bicycle Crunches

The benefits of standing bicycle crunches range from physical, mental, psychological, and so on. You won’t stop doing this exercise after reading these vast benefits.

1. Weight Loss:

Losing weight is one of the significant benefits of stranding bicycle crunches. If you want to intensify your workout routines, and you add bicycle crunches to your daily routine, you will see visible results in a few days. Combine this workout with some cardio and proper diet. As the muscles are engaged, it will surely help in losing weight. You can even enhance the intensity of this workout by adding some weight, and as a result, you will feel weight loss in a shorter time.

2. Muscle Building:

Gaining muscles and strengthening muscles is another benefits of standing bicycle crunch. As you know that this exercise involves many significant muscles, so you can get these muscles more robust and strengthened. If you regularly perform this exercise, your body will be energetic and powerful as the muscles are activated. These turning torso movements and comping back to straight position help build and tone muscles; that is why you can see well-toned abdominal muscles- Six Packs if you continue performing this workout.

The movements need energy, which comes from burning the calories from your muscles, and ultimately your body faces a high-calorie burning. So, making it a routine to perform standing bicycle crunches will help build muscles, calorie-burning, weight loss, toned body and strengthened abs.

3. Stronger Muscles:

Core muscles are the body’s major muscles that make our body healthy and help in proper movements. This exercise extensively builds core muscles. A stronger core means a firmer body. It enables you to recover from pains, aches, and injuries, typically due to weak core muscles. If you want an ideal healthy and fit body, then performing this exercise would be the best choice for you.

4. Flat Belly:

Standing Bicycle Crunches help in achieving your desired flat and toned belly. It enables you to get the best body shape by removing the extra layers of fats that make you look chubby. From all around the waistline to major belly muscles, this exercise burns many calories, and as a result, you get a flat stomach.

5. Defined Abdomen:

If you are looking for magical movements to get a unique muscular definition, then Standing Bicycle Crunch is the perfect exercise for you. This exercise will result in building great six-packs, which will never go unnoticed. The fantastic results of this exercise will make you love it incredibly. The defined and well-toned muscles will never let you give up this exercise.