Welcome to the Get Fit Guys' quick and dirty tips to slim down and shape up.

My name is Ben Greenfield, and I'm the Get Fit Guy.

It would seem that the almighty crunch is the gold standard for getting a flat stomach.

Eat too much?

Just do a few hundred extra crunches.

Not sure what ab workout to do at the gym, drop and crunch.

Want to have a six-pack like Sylvester Stallone and Rocky?

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

But are crunches really the best way to get a flat stomach, a six-pack, or a strong core?

In this episode, you'll find out why crunches may not be the best ab exercise,

and you'll learn 10 alternatives for a flat stomach workout.

So here's where I crunches don't work.

Imagine your spine is a credit card.

In the same way that repeatedly flexing and extending a credit card

will eventually lead to wearing out of the card,

and that little white line that starts to appear on the spine of the card

repeatedly performing the same crunching motion over and over again can put a lifetime of damaging strain on your back.

The reason for this is that each of your spinal discs is only able to support a limited number of bending motions over the course of your lifetime before you get a bad back,

low back pain, a disc bulge, or a disc herniation. Because it involves lying on your back and repeatedly

bending and extending at the spine, the crunch motion is a big culprit when it comes to placing

excessive strain directly on the portion of the low back that has the most

nerves and is most susceptible to this wear and fatigue. You've probably been taught that if you're

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