Are bicycle crunches good enough for an ab workout?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I read that bicycle crunches are one of the best ab exercises. Are they good enough to be all-encompassing, or should I do other kinds of ab workouts?

What's a good number of crunches to do? Right now I can do about 80 in a row before I collapse and have that momentary feeling of needing to vomit. Then I wait 30 seconds, do 20-30 more, wait 5 minutes, do 60 more and get vomit feeling, wait 30 seconds, try to do 40 more, and then maybe another 50. So about 250 in all.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Bicycle crunches help, I'm sure. However like all other BW exercises, at some point they are just training muscle endurance. That's why weighted exercises that involve stabilizing the core are much more efficient at inducing hypertrophy and in gaining strength.

Your cardio will probably limit your bicycle crunches more than your actual ab strength. It's kinda hard to give you a rating on how good they are for an ab workout because it really depends on your goals. I would suggest weighted ab exercises always. These give you bigger abs that look better and start to poke through a bit earlier when losing fat.

Try dragon flags if you are sick of doing so many of these. They are pretty amazing.

 

[brikis98]

What exactly is your goal?

* If goal is to see your six pack, then all the ab exercise in the world won't help much, as it's really all about body fat percentage, which means you need to watch your diet.
* If your goal is to strengthen your core, then you're much better off doing various weighted exercises, such as the squat, deadlift, OH press, weighted sit-ups, and turkish get-ups.
* If your goal is to build muscular endurance in your abs, then by all means do bicycle crunches in huge numbers.

 

[BeauJangles]

What do you mean by all encompassing? Bicycle crunches won't really tone your abs, they won't build much core strength, and they'll do a moderate to poor job of increasing your abs' work capacity.

If you are interested in increasing core strength, there are plenty of more effective exercises. If you are interested in simply 'working' your abs, then why not stick with real sit ups?

edit: to be more specific, I'd highly recommend doing getups, windmills, or knees-to-elbows (and various progressions). Also, doing static weight holds (ie - grab two 20 lb dbs and hold them overhead) will work your entire core and your shoulders. Brikis' suggestions, like usual, are spot-on.

 

[skace]

Say what you want, the bicycle crunch is still an excellent exercise when done properly. I'd question what you are doing to pull off 250, especially since didn't you just recently start working out? People tend to cheat at situps worse than any other exercise.