doing crunches or not?

Amelia0471
Amelia0471 Posts: 44
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey everyone, Im currently trying to lose about 15 more pounds and some of it is the belly.. I have read however by doing crunches it could Make belly fat look worse! Is this true? Should I lose the weight first and then focus on abs? I should note Im not just focusing on abs its just in my routine.

Replies

  • wheird
    wheird Posts: 7,963 Member
    Crunches are nearly useless. And no, they wont make belly fat "worse".

    Focus on losing fat.
  • Amelia0471
    Amelia0471 Posts: 44
    Haha ok. I kept them in my routine because I was doing workout dvds and crunches are in every DVD!! So thats good to know though
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    Crunches are nearly useless. And no, they wont make belly fat "worse".

    Focus on losing fat.

    Yup.

    Doing crunches in a deficit simply increases the strength of your ab muscles, and preserves them, but not very well. There are much better core exercises out there, or just big compound lifts will generally work your core enough for the average person.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    crunches are about a notch above a complete waste of time...
  • Amelia0471
    Amelia0471 Posts: 44
    Any ideas on what to do to work out the core.... that isnt a waste of time?
  • wheird
    wheird Posts: 7,963 Member
    Planks if we're talking calisthenics.
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,208 Member
    Any ideas on what to do to work out the core.... that isnt a waste of time?

    Heavy squats & deadlifts. Guaranteed not to be a waste of time.
  • ValGogo
    ValGogo Posts: 2,168 Member
    Forget crunches. They are like butter churns, past their time.

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