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Lateral Crunches

Muscles worked

  • Obliques
  • Quadratus Lumborum
  • Hip Abductors

Form Cues

  • Lie on your side on the floor with your legs slightly bent and stacked.

  • Place your lower hand on the ground for stability.

  • Position the upper hand behind your head or at your temple.

  • Engage your lateral abdominal muscles to initiate the crunch.

  • Lift your upper body sideways toward your hip without rotating.

  • Perform the movement in a controlled manner, avoiding momentum.

  • Hold the tension briefly at the highest point of the crunch.

  • Lower slowly without completely releasing the tension.

  • Keep your neck neutral and do not pull on your head.

Progressions

  1. 01

    Lateral Crunch

    • Lie on your side with your legs straight and stacked, body in a straight line from head to toes.

    • Place your bottom hand on the ground in front of you for stability, and your top hand lightly behind your head.

    • Engage your obliques to lift both your legs and upper body toward each other in a lateral crunching motion.

    • Focus on shortening the distance between your bottom rib and hip bone — this is pure lateral flexion, no rotation.

    • Squeeze hard at the top of the crunch and hold for 1-2 seconds before lowering.

    • Lower with control over 2-3 seconds, maintaining tension in the obliques — do not fully relax at the bottom.

    • Breathe out as you crunch up and inhale as you lower back down.

    • Complete all reps on one side before switching to the other side.

  2. 02

    Arms-Overhead Lateral Crunch

    • Lie on your side with legs straight and stacked, both arms extended overhead to lengthen the lever arm.

    • Engage your obliques to crunch upward, bringing your legs and upper body toward each other while keeping your arms straight overhead.

    • The extended arms increase the difficulty by lengthening the moment arm, demanding more oblique strength.

    • Squeeze at the top of the crunch, maintaining maximum tension in the side body for 1-2 seconds.

    • Lower with control over 2-3 seconds, keeping the arms overhead throughout — do not let them drop.

    • Maintain tension in the obliques at the bottom of each rep — avoid fully relaxing between reps.

    • Breathe out as you crunch up and inhale as you lower back down.

    • Complete all reps on one side before switching to the other side.

  3. 03

    Loaded Lateral Crunch

    Dumbbells or Kettlebells
    Dumbbells or Kettlebells

    • Lie on your side with legs straight and stacked, holding a light dumbbell or kettlebell in your top hand with arm extended overhead.

    • Engage your obliques to crunch upward, bringing your legs and upper body toward each other while keeping the weight extended overhead.

    • The added load significantly increases the demand on the obliques and lateral core muscles.

    • Squeeze hard at the top of the crunch and hold for 1-2 seconds, feeling the deep contraction in the side body.

    • Lower with control over 2-3 seconds, maintaining the weight overhead throughout the entire range of motion.

    • Keep tension in the obliques at the bottom — do not fully relax between reps.

    • Start with a light weight (2-5 kg) and increase gradually as your lateral strength improves.

    • Complete all reps on one side before switching to the other side.

Common mistakes

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