Training Your Abdominals – Part 3: Decline/Abdominal Board or Bench

In Training Your Abdominals – Part 3 we’re going to cover the Decline Board or Abdominal Board in our quest for that ever elusive 6-pack!

As I said in previous blogs, trainers tend to want to use gym apparatus to train their abs, rather than doing plain old floor exercises. That’s fine in principle, but the more moving parts and variables you have in an exercise, the more chance there is that something will go wrong.

The first thing to remember when you are doing crunch or ab curl exercises is the basics of the movement and what you are trying to achieve (covered in Training Your Abdominals – Part 2) and keep them in mind, regardless of whether you are on the floor, the stability ball, or the ab board, or whether or not you are using added resistance.

The Decline Board Or Ab Bench Looks Like A Weight Bench

The Decline Board Or Ab Bench Looks Like A Weight Bench

Decline Board

The decline board looks like a weight bench, but is sloped and has a cushion at the top for you to slip your feet under. Sometimes they include a triangle to put your knees over, which can help flatten your back and protect against hyper extension at the bottom/beginning of the movement. Put simply, it is designed to allow you to do sit ups uphill, holding you in position by your feet. It is meant to make the sit up harder, using gravity as resistance. Other than that, it is the same exercise.

Setup

When you are using the decline board, set it to a sensible angle. I often see trainers setting it to near vertical. What tends to happen, is that they do not go fully back to the board (or anywhere near it), meaning that their range of movement is very restricted. Make sure when you set the board up that you can get to the bottom of the movement for the full range of movement. Better to set it to a shallow angle and perform the exercise properly with good form, than set it to a wide angle and perform the exercise poorly.

Performing The Exercise

Perform the exercise under control. Explosive movement is fine, but your abdominals should be under strain, and in control of the movement at all times. No bouncing off the bottom, or holding on to your legs at the top for a breather and a cup of tea.

In my opinion, your hands should either go on your legs or arms crossed, with finger tips touching your shoulders, but there is no hard and fast rule. If they are there, you don’t have the temptation of grabbing your head and wrenching it forward to create the momentum to sit up – definitely a bad thing. It is you abs you are training, not your biceps and neck, and if you put your neck under strain like this, injury is the likely result. Also you are more likely to hyper extend your back if your hands are on or around your head. Wherever your hands go, keep them there. Any attempt to throw them forward to create momentum will result in poor form and greater risk of injury. If you find yourself having to do this to sit up, either you are attempting to do too many sit ups, or the angle of the board is too steep.

Adding Weight

Similarly, if you are using a weight or a medicine ball, keep it in one place. I recommend 1 of 3 positions: either under your chin, on the tip of your nose, or on your forehead. Holding the weight on your chin is the safest place, as the further toward the top of your head you go, the greater the resistance, but there is also greater strain on your lower back. It is important to keep the weight still so that the resistance is constant. I often see trainers move the weight toward their waist on the way up, and then return it toward their chin on the way down. All this does is make the sit up easier on the way up – the momentum of the weight going forward pulling you up rather than your abdominals, and then puts progressively more strain on your lower back on the way back down.

How Many Sets & Reps?

The amount of sets and repetitions of crunches you do depends largely on your goals, but remember, crunches, especially on a decline board is a resistance exercise. They can form part of a cardio circuit also, but we are really talk about an element of a resistance workout routine here. If you are looking to build strength in your core and develop lean mass, I would recommend a repetition range of 8-15, for 3 or 4 sets as general guidance, but I would seek specific guidance, for example on the forum, on the right blend to meet your needs.

In my next blog in this series, I’ll talk about the stability ball.