Dr Mel Siff Blog

<< I have seen several definitions of the Janda crunch, this being the latest
from:

http://www.cyberpump.com/chuckpit/chuck010.html

“Find a high bench or something similar. Drape your legs across it like you
normally would. Now, as you crunch up, dig your heels into the bench. What
this does is contract your hip extensors which automatically relaxes your
hip flexors (autogenic inhibition if you wish to look it up) and targets your
abdominals. See, even when you are doing normal crunches, the hip flexors (in
most people) isometrically contract very strongly. Doing the Janda crunch is
a much more intense way of crunching if you are doing it right.”

Comments to the accuracy of this description? >>

*** This definition conveys the general idea. Way before Janda and various
latter day fitness popularists of this situp came on the scene, one of the
methods used to diminish involvement of the hip flexors in situps involved
putting the legs on a bench AND pressing firmly against a wall AND curling
the pelvis upwards in a posterior pelvic tilt. This causes even greater
activation of the hip extensors and by RECIPROCAL inhibition (not autogenic,
which is something very different!) diminishes hip flexor involvement to a
greater extent than the so-called Janda method.

You cannot do this on a smooth surface, because the strong pressing action
and pelvic rotation will make you slide away from the wall, but, when you
have established a suitable setup, you will find that this method is even
more demanding than the ‘Janda’ variation, especially if you pull against a
cable system or elastic bands. If you wish, you can lie over one of Fred
Koch’s AbMats and make this Reciprocal Inhibition (RI) Crunch even more
interesting and demanding. There is also a more ballistic variation, if you
wish. If you enjoy ‘ab isolation’ exercises, then variations of this RI
Crunch will delight and challenge you!

Of course, who says that you ever need to lie down to exercise the bas, or,
for that matter who says that one should not involve the hip flexors in any
situps or crunches? After all, today the trend is towards “functional
training” and in many situations the abdominal musculature work in an
integrated natural fashion with the hip flexors. Knowing this, why are all
those “functional” educators still teaching isolationist exercises like Janda
and other supine crunches?

One can use cable crunches in a standing or kneeling position, standing
Olympic Presses, standing cable PNF “chopping” patterns, Olympic bar rollouts
(using an upward piking action of the body, not a rolling action back and
forth), and overhead throws with a medicine ball. Of course, if you are
executing the Olympic and Power lifts and their many variations, the abs
experience a very demanding workout, anyway.

Dr Mel C Siff

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Tags: Abdominals, Bench, Cable System, Crunch, Dr Mel Siff, Drape, Elastic Bands, Fred Koch, General Idea, Hip Extensors, Hip Flexor, Hip Flexors, Isolation, Latter Day, Mel Siff, Pelvic Rotation, Pelvis, Posterior Pelvic Tilt, Reciprocal Inhibition, Situp, Smooth Surface, Supertraining