The Decline Crunch is a beginner-friendly bodyweight strength exercise that targets the abdominals. Here's how to do it right — and what to stop doing.
Primary musclesAbs
Secondary muscles—
EquipmentBodyweight
LevelBeginner
TypeStrength
3D demo in the EGON app
01 Execution
How to do the Decline Crunch
Set a decline bench to a moderate angle and hook your feet under the roller pads.
Lie back with your knees bent and your lower back resting on the bench.
Cross your arms over your chest or rest your fingertips beside your ears without pulling on the neck.
Exhale and curl your shoulder blades off the bench by shortening the abdominals.
Stop once the upper back has left the pad, keeping the lower back in contact.
Inhale and lower slowly to the start without resting at the bottom.
02 The payoff
Why it earns its spot
Increases abdominal loading over a floor crunch without adding any external weight.
Keeps the range short and the lower back supported, which suits high rep finisher work.
Progresses by bench angle alone, so one station covers several difficulty levels.
03 Don't do this
Common mistakes
Pulling on the head with the hands, which strains the neck and hides how little the abdominals moved.
Curling all the way up into a sit-up, which hands the work to the hip flexors.
Setting the decline too steep too soon, which usually turns into a swinging half rep.
Dropping back to the bench between reps, which discards the eccentric and the tension with it.
EGON Put it on record
Track it in EGON.
Log every set of the Decline Crunch, get your PRs detected automatically, earn aura for the work — and climb five leagues of statues, from Stone to Ego.
