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The MANS diet works really well for me,

I've been constantly gaining in the weight I've been lifting for decline crunches, (up 0.5kg just about every session that include abs now for months) starting with a single 10kg plate, moving to a dumbell until I could fit no more 5kg plates on it, eventually I got a 50cm length of 25mm steel bar cut and this is what I use now with spring collars (packed with 5kg plates as I find it too difficult to work with anything of a larger diameter against my chest), which is great but I'm running out of bar to hold onto now at the sides.

Today I used 48kg of plates (8x5kg & 2x4kg) and the bar weighs more than 2kg so I'm over 50kg now and still managed 18 good form slow cadence crunches in the 1st set and 10 in the 2nd (I've only ever done 2 sets but put as much as I can into them physically and mentally). So this means another gain in resistance weight but the bar is getting difficult to manouver and lift into the starting position.

I was searching the net to see what others do when they get to this amount of resistance but can't seem to find much at all on large weights for crunches other than a couple of references to people using single 45kg plates.

I don't just want to do lot's more reps, anybody else using heavy weights for crunches?

First off, great problem to have, gratz on your great progress.

Personally, I gave up on decline crunches at about the 40lb mark (and that was a long time ago ). I can't hold a 45lb plate across my chest without smashing my face in, and dumbbells have always felt unwieldy to me on crunches. Now, if you're at a gym, there's always the option of cables. Just set the cable to the bottom of the tower, grab the handle and have at it. There's also the whole pantheon of ab contraptions (my gym has one of these things that I find more effective than the others). You can always try one of those, too.

If you're doing everything at home, a tricep bar might work for you better than your length o' pipe. Could load it up and either hold it behind your head or let it rest on your chest and hold it that way.

I ended up switching to dumbells on the decline crunch, but this depends on the design of DB. The method i used was the weight either side of the bar was in my hands, then essentially rolling the weight up my chest so it was between my chest and shoulders, my finger tips touching my chest/shoulders stopping the weight rolling into my face, and my biceps stopping the weight rolling down. The only downside i found to this was the occasional bruised bicep

Thanks for the replies,

Usually train at home, gym's for some reason have always upset my concentration and I can't get that extra couple of reps after my eyes have exploded

An interesting point just concerning crunches is that 20 odd years ago when I was a whole lot fitter I got to about the 40lb mark with decline crunches and felt that that weight was very heavy. When I started training regularly again about a year ago, I made slow progress up to about the same point (somedays finding it difficult to make 10 reps in the 1st set after increasing resistance by 0.5kg, swapping up when I got to 16) and my initial goal was to see if I could get any better than what I managed when I was younger.

I remember being over the moon when I got to 22kg's and again felt that that was a lot of weight but sometime just shortly after that one of the times I increased my weight by the usual 0.5kg instead of a drop in reps I did 21 which was more than I had ever done before and I have increased 0.5kg with the reps varying between 17 & 21 virtually every session since! My other exercises have shown good and steady progress but none to match the crunches and straight leg raises. It really did come out of the blue although it may have coincided with changing my supplement supplier for protein and creatine etc.

Another thing is, after working up to it, crunching 50kg when your actually doing the movement doesn't feel that much different from crunching 20kg it's just a whole lot harder to manouver the bar to get started and to get it safely off after reaching failure, the bench creaks a bit more and the last couple sure make you gasp for breath but that's the way it should be.

I wish my other exercises could improve at this constant rate but I've got a niggling bicep injury at the moment so I'm having to hold back on a lot of stuff.

I have tried everywhichway with dumbells and can't hold big plates comfortably either, the tricep bar suggestion gave me an idea, I might try getting a longer length of 25mm bar and weld stops on at shoulder width to make a short barbell, weights on the outside, then I can hold my hands where I like them to be and put some pipe insulation tubing round the bar where it rests on my chest for some more comfort, need to see how it's going to work out for balance and being able to get to the start position though. He He, I could put a 20kg plate on each side and that would look really wild but it would probably hit the floor at the bottom of the decline.

If I make it I'll let you know.

I'm not 100% certain the muscle groups would be worked the same way, someone else might know, but maybe try holding the barbell weight or dumbbell straight over your head (arms straight up) for the entire motion. The further away the weight is from your center of gravity, the heavier it should feel. I did this when the 45 barbell weight was too unwieldy. Had to drop to a 25 when held straight up and THAT was tough!

LombieHerc wrote:I'm not 100% certain the muscle groups would be worked the same way, someone else might know, but maybe try holding the barbell weight or dumbbell straight over your head (arms straight up) for the entire motion. The further away the weight is from your center of gravity, the heavier it should feel. I did this when the 45 barbell weight was too unwieldy. Had to drop to a 25 when held straight up and THAT was tough!

This isn't terribly different from the guys that hold the plate behind their head. You'd have to mind your form, but you could make it work. Form-wise, you'd want to allow the weight to move slightly forward as you come up and slightly back as you move down - which should happen naturally on its own, so basically don't lock the shoulders in place. Mind you this is added strain on the shoulder joints, so while it's effective your mileage may vary, especially if you have shoulder problems.

I'll have a go at behind the head as well but my bicep tendon is making everything awkward at the moment, shoulders are fine though it's the elbow bottom end of my right bicep that the problems at .

Check12 wrote:I'll have a go at behind the head as well but my bicep tendon is making everything awkward at the moment, shoulders are fine though it's the elbow bottom end of my right bicep that the problems at .

Then put it over your head. I said it's strain on the shoulder with the arms out like that, not the elbow. If it doesn't bother your shoulder to do 'em out straight, but bothers your elbow to do it behind the head, then do what doesn't bother, silly.

Sorry if I confused you man. Hope I didn't inadvertently aggravate your elbow.