Setup
Equipment: Two towels (or a mat and two towels)
Muscles Targeted: abdominal
Have your child lie on his back on the mat or floor. The knees should be bent at approximately 90 degrees and the feet flat on the mat or the ground, hip width apart. The arms should be held straight out, as if trying to fly like a superhero. The chin should be kept tucked to the chest, not bridged backward.
For a lot of kids straight crunches, if done properly, are very tough because the muscles of the abdomen are fairly small and weak. Some assist techniques might be necessary to perform the exercises properly.
Here are two ways to do it. First, tell your child to bring outstretched fingers a bit lower for the rising phase, so that he can touch his mid-thigh. As he crunches, he crawls up his thigh with his fingertips and lets his arms assist in the lift.
Pause and squeeze just as in the routine, then let the fingertips crawl back down to almost resting. If he still can’t do the crunch, have him move over to a door, open it, and straddle it with his legs. Take the jump rope and wrap it around both doorknobs and use it to gently assist in rising to the top position. Then after a pause, lower slowly while holding the rope but without using the strength of the arms to lower back down. Eventually he will be able to do the crunches without using the arms at all.
Making the Exercise Harder
If the crunches are too easy, place the child’s hands behind the head, arms relaxed, not pulling on the neck. Continue doing the crunches the same way as above until he reaches muscular success, then very quickly switch to the easier (arms to knees) method and continue to do more crunches until muscular success is achieved again. Using this method, have him hold the last crunch in the crunched position, replace his hands behind his head, and hold this position until he cannot stop his body from lowering down.
Equipment: Two towels (or a mat and two towels)
Muscles Targeted: abdominal
Have your child lie on his back on the mat or floor. The knees should be bent at approximately 90 degrees and the feet flat on the mat or the ground, hip width apart. The arms should be held straight out, as if trying to fly like a superhero. The chin should be kept tucked to the chest, not bridged backward.
- Slowly and carefully he should begin to curl his torso upward and forward as if he is trying to touch his knees with his fingertips. The idea here is not to try and sit all the way up. Only the shoulder blades should roll up The Slow Speed Exercises Start/Finish Position and off the floor. The lower back should stay in contact with the towel roll.
- Once the fingertips touch the knees or when they’re as close as he can get them to the knees, he should pause, squeeze the stomach for a full second, and also breathe.
- He should try and really tighten up the stomach muscles as if a boxer was about to punch him in the gut. Tell him that!
- After the squeeze, he should ease down slowly, lowering the upper torso in 5 seconds until his shoulder blades touch the floor again. At this point, the temptation to rest will be strong but do not rest!
- Immediately reverse direction and begin to crunch up again.
- It’s a little bit harder to keep free and easy breathing in this exercise compared to others so encourage open and
- Strong Kids, Healthy Kids Halfway/Endpoint free breathing a little more often. Try not to allow any breath holding, clenching of the teeth, grunting, grimacing, jerking, and so on.
- Continue until success (muscle failure) is achieved.
- Record the reps and time on the progress chart.
- Remember to give words of praise! If he is really tuckered out, advise him to lie on the towel or mat for a while and breathe to relax.
Making the Exercise Easier
For a lot of kids straight crunches, if done properly, are very tough because the muscles of the abdomen are fairly small and weak. Some assist techniques might be necessary to perform the exercises properly.
Here are two ways to do it. First, tell your child to bring outstretched fingers a bit lower for the rising phase, so that he can touch his mid-thigh. As he crunches, he crawls up his thigh with his fingertips and lets his arms assist in the lift.
Pause and squeeze just as in the routine, then let the fingertips crawl back down to almost resting. If he still can’t do the crunch, have him move over to a door, open it, and straddle it with his legs. Take the jump rope and wrap it around both doorknobs and use it to gently assist in rising to the top position. Then after a pause, lower slowly while holding the rope but without using the strength of the arms to lower back down. Eventually he will be able to do the crunches without using the arms at all.
Making the Exercise Harder
If the crunches are too easy, place the child’s hands behind the head, arms relaxed, not pulling on the neck. Continue doing the crunches the same way as above until he reaches muscular success, then very quickly switch to the easier (arms to knees) method and continue to do more crunches until muscular success is achieved again. Using this method, have him hold the last crunch in the crunched position, replace his hands behind his head, and hold this position until he cannot stop his body from lowering down.
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