If crunches are still the main focus of your fitness routine, not only are you still living in the 90's, you are potentially a few sets away from blowing out your back. We now know without a doubt from the latest research that our spinal column can only tolerate a certain amount of flexion before the discs in our backs start to degrade.
If you are still willing to take the risks, its still not worth it. The role of our abdominal muscles is not primarily for flexion. You should consider that our trunk muscles are to control and in most cases 'brake' forces applied to the spine and to create a stable base for the hip and shoulder joints. So if you consider this is the functional role we should treat core training in four different force applications to the trunk. Working one plane of motion or even anti-motion is like doing bench press without rows. Setting yourself up for muscular imbalance.
Four applied planes of force are anterior, posterior, lateral and rotational. These need to be trained with a control and proper focus on activation without the interruption of complicated joint movements first. Excellent exercises for this is bridges.
I will be following up this rant with three phases of core training.
TJ Johnston
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