Sit in the abdominal machine with your back pressed against the back rest.
Hook your feet under the foot levers.
Grasp the handles by the sides of your head.
Execution
Exhale as you flex your abdomen and pelvis to pull the handles down and the foot levers up so that your body assumes a crunch.
Inhale as you relax your abdomen and pelvis to return to the starting position.
Repeat.
Comments and tips
Keep your back pressed firmly against the back rest. Don’t let it hunch.
Keep your neck neutral.
Don’t pull down with your arms; keep them rigid. All of the movement should be produced by the flexion of your abdomen and pelvis.
Adjust the machine’s seat and foot levers for optimal comfort and range of motion.
This exercise is a machine leg raise crunch and not just a machine crunch because the back segment of the machine moves forward (crunch) while the seat moves upward (leg raise). With other abdominal crunch machines, only the back segment moves forward, in which case the exercise is a machine crunch (see second video).
The machine leg raise crunch is also known as the machine full crunch.
