Weighted Crunches

Name: How to do Weighted Crunches: exercise demo
Uploaded: 2024-11-26T04:51:42Z
Duration: 3 s
Description: Weighted crunches are a floor crunch done with your hips and knees bent at 90 degrees and dumbbells held straight above your chest, curling your shoulders off the floor as you press the weights toward the ceiling. They target the abs (rectus abdominis).

Also called dumbbell crunch, weighted crunch

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Quick answer

Weighted crunches are a floor crunch done with your hips and knees bent at 90 degrees and dumbbells held straight above your chest, curling your shoulders off the floor as you press the weights toward the ceiling. They target the abs (rectus abdominis).

Written by the GymStreak coaching team · Updated 29 Sep 2026

Muscles worked

Front

Back

Primary

How to do Weighted Crunches

1
Lie on the floor with knees bent and both arms outstretched holding a comfortable weight. Raise you feet off the ground and have them in a 90 degree position. This is your starting position.
2
Begin by rolling your shoulders off the ground, pushing your lower back into the ground to isolate your abdominal muscles.
3
Lift your shoulders as far as you can without lifting your lower back off the ground.
4
Pause the contraction for a moment at this point then slowly return to the starting position.

Form cues

Hold your hips and knees at 90 degrees so your legs stay still.
Press the dumbbells straight up toward the ceiling as you curl, not toward your knees.
Curl your ribs toward your pelvis while your lower back stays on the floor.
Keep a fist-sized gap between your chin and chest.
Lower your shoulders slowly instead of dropping back to the mat.

Breathing: Breathe out as you curl up and push the dumbbells toward the ceiling; breathe in as you lower your shoulders back to the floor.

Common Weighted Crunches mistakes

Lifting with the arms and neck, not the abs
Keep your arms locked vertically over your chest and let the curl of your upper spine raise the weights.
Legs swinging or sinking as you tire
Hold your legs still at 90 degrees; if you can't, rest your feet on the floor or a bench for the rest of the set.
Lower back arching off the mat
Gently flatten your lower back into the floor before each rep and stop the curl before it peels up.
Dumbbells too heavy to hold steady overhead
Choose weights you can keep stacked over your shoulders for the whole set, or start with one dumbbell held in both hands.

Sets and reps by goal

Goal	Sets	Reps	Rest
Muscle growth	3–4	8–15	60–90 s
Muscular endurance	2–3	12–20	30–60 s

Starting ranges in line with the ACSM guidance on resistance training. Pick a load you can lift with good form for every rep, and add weight or reps gradually.

Weighted Crunches variations and alternatives

Variations

Crunches
The bodyweight version, the place to start before adding load.
Single-dumbbell weighted crunch
One dumbbell held in both hands above your chest is easier to control than two.
Plate-on-chest crunch
Hug a weight plate to your chest with your feet on the floor for a simpler setup.
Decline Crunches
A decline bench makes the crunch harder by increasing the range you lift against.

Alternatives

Cable Crunch
Easy to load in small steps and keeps tension on the abs throughout the rep.
Reverse Crunch
Curls the pelvis up toward the ribs instead of the shoulders toward the hips.
Hanging Leg Raise
A harder bodyweight option that also demands grip and hip flexor strength.
Barbell Ab Rollout
Trains the abs to resist your lower back arching, a useful partner to crunching moves.

Weighted Crunches FAQ

What muscles do weighted crunches work?

Weighted crunches mainly work the rectus abdominis, the long muscle down the front of your stomach that curls your ribs toward your pelvis. The obliques help a little, and your shoulders and arms work only to hold the dumbbells in place. Because the legs stay raised, your hip flexors also hold that position, but they are not meant to drive the rep.

How heavy should weighted crunches be?

Pick a weight that lets you complete 8–15 slow, controlled reps with your lower back staying on the floor and your arms staying vertical. If you start yanking with your arms or neck, or your legs start moving, the weight is too heavy. Light dumbbells or a single dumbbell held in both hands are plenty for most people at first.

Weighted crunches vs regular crunches: which is better?

Neither is better in every case. Regular crunches are the right place to learn the movement. Once you can do 15–20 clean reps with ease, adding weight lets you keep training the abs in a moderate rep range instead of doing longer and longer sets. Many people use both: weighted crunches for strength and growth, bodyweight crunches for higher-rep work.

Will weighted crunches make my waist wider?

For most people, no. The rectus abdominis runs down the front of your stomach, so training it mostly adds thickness at the front rather than width at the sides. How your waist looks depends far more on overall body fat, which crunches do not reduce from one spot. Train them in normal volumes alongside the rest of your program.