Exercise Library / Side Crunch
Side Crunch
Carve your obliques with a controlled sideways bend — standing, anywhere.
Muscles worked
Primary Obliques
Secondary Abs
Tap a muscle to explore it on the interactive muscle map.
How to do it
- Stand tall, feet hip-width, fingertips lightly at your temples.
- Bend directly sideways — imagine sliding between two panes of glass.
- Crunch your ribs toward your hip, not your elbow to your knee.
- Keep your hips still; the movement comes from your waist.
- Come back up with control — no bouncing.
Common mistakes
- Rushing the return. Springing back upright throws away the eccentric half of the rep, where the obliques work hardest.
- Bending forward instead of sideways. Folding at the waist shifts the work from the obliques to the hip flexors and rounds the spine.
- Swinging the hips. If the hips sway with each rep, momentum does the job your waist should be doing.
What the camera coach watches
These are the exact checks FitFormBuddy runs on every rep of side crunch — and what it says when you drift:
- Return speed“come back up with control”
Get real-time form cues on this exercise
FitFormBuddy watches through your camera and coaches you mid-set — reps counted, mistakes called out as they happen.
