Standing Criss Cross Crunches | Illustrated Exercise Guide

Primary muscles: Abs, obliques, hip flexors
Secondary muscles: Glutes, thighs, quads
Equipment: No equipment

STANDING CRISS CROSS CRUNCHES INSTRUCTIONS

1. Stand up straight with your feet hip-width apart and your hands behind your head.
2. Bend your right leg and lift your knee as high as you can.
3. Rotate your torso to the right and bring your right knee to your left elbow.
4. Repeat on the opposite side and keep alternating sides until set is complete.

PROPER FORM AND BREATHING PATTERN

When doing the standing criss cross crunches, engage your core muscles, open your elbows, keep your neck relaxed and your back straight. Breathe out as you crunch and keep the movement smooth and steady.

EXERCISE BENEFITS

Adding standing criss cross crunches to your workout routine helps to increase core strength and stability, improves flexibility and coordination and helps to sculpt and trim down your waist. Since your whole body is moving constantly, it also helps to increase your heart rate, warms up the body and burns off body fat.

DEMONSTRATION

SETS AND REPS

Start slowly with 30 seconds to 1 minute sets and, as you gain strength and flexibility, increase the height of the leg lift as well as the speed. Move as fast as you can without losing form.

CALORIES BURNED

To calculate the number of calories burned doing the standing criss cross crunches, enter your weight and the duration of the exercise:

RELATED WARM UP EXERCISES

Try these other warm up exercises to increase your heart rate and prepare your body for a workout:
Half squat jab cross
Fingertip to toe jacks
Scissor skier
Cross jacks