Almost every abdominal or core program these days has you doing every possible variation of the abdominal crunch.

It's as though you'll sit-up your way to that washboard set of abs. No pain, no gain right?

Unfortunately my friends, this just ain't the truth.

In fact, this is probably one of the biggest fallacies that has been perpetuated for years, mostly through ignorance, in the health and fitness industry.

In my opinion, the only greater misconception is the one where cardiovascular exercise is touted as being the best method to lose body fat. But I'll save that for another hub.

Today, we're here to talk about a few of the little known dangers of abdominal crunches.

Drum Roll Please...

The biggest danger of the abdominal crunch is the damage that it may cause your back.

There has been much research undertaken on the causes of various back injuries. And when looking at herniated discs, the major cause is repeated flexion and extension of the spine.

Guess what you do when you do a sit-up, crunch or any other variation of those abdominal exercises?

Repeated flexion and extension; the exact same motions that have been show to cause disc herniations!

Another major risk from these types of exercises are the extremely high levels of spinal compressive loading.

In fact, the compressive loads on the spine during these types of movements have been measured at levels higher than those that are considered acceptable by workplace safety standards boards.

So ask yourself, why would you do an exercise that carries that level of risk? Is it worth it? Is there a better way to tight toned abs?

I can't answer the first two questions for you, but I can definitely give you some help with the last one.

There are definitely better ways to improve your core while protecting your back.

But before discuss any of these exercises, I'd like to make sure everyone understands the function of the core, at least in my view.

In my books, the core serves two main purposes.

1. To resist movement: It's designed to resist the forces of rotation, flexion, extension or any combination of those.

2. To transfer energy: The core allows energy transfer between our lower and upper body, and between us and our environment (running, jumping, pushing, pulling, standing etc).

Based on the above two fundamental core principles, the best core exercises are those that teach your body to resist movement or transfer energy.

These exercises include variations of the birddog, the plank, and the bridge as demonstrated in the videos below.