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The quest for the perfect crunch can be as elusive as a search for the Holy Grail. Many people know how to do a crunch or sit-up, however most people go about it all wrong. Either they don't know the tempo, the form, or simply don't know the basics of how to perform the perfect crunch. Performing abdominal crunches correctly can lead to lean, sexy abs in a matter of months. However, performing abdominal crunches incorrectly will not just leave you without results but could lead to serious injury.

Knowing the basics of the results that a crunch done correctly should provide is the first step in completing the perfect crunch. Crunches are designed to engage the abdominal muscles while adding the resistance of your upper body as weight that the abdominals are lifting. The key to achieving the extra burn in the perfect crunch is to engage the abdominals both throughout the movement.

Exercising the perfect crunch is all about control. Controlling the movement on the way up and controlling the movement on the way down. The most common mistakes that people make is not controlling the movement, and simply using the momentum to catapult their body in an awkward upward and downward motion. They will try to do crunches to quickly, or yank on their neck when coming up and relying on their back to support them while coming down. Not only does this not provide any benefit to your core, but also it can cause neck strain, headaches and lower back injury.

The perfect crunch is meditation in movement, not a movement of speed but a movement of precision executed in five simple steps:

1. To begin, lie on your back with your knees bent and feet firmly planted on the mat.

2. Interlace your fingers behind your head, and inhale. When you exhale, engage your abdominal muscles and use only those muscles to lift you up off of the mat. Start the movement from the abdominals and let the rest of your torso simply follow their lead.

3. Slowly bring yourself up to a point where your shoulder blades about 5 inches off of the floor. When coming up it's important not to curve your arms forward toward your knees, but to keep them parallel to the floor, this will help you resist the urge to use momentum from the movement and cheat the crunch.

4. From here, inhale and resist the movement down, slowly using your abdominals to guide your torso to the floor.

5. Then lather, rinse and repeat for as many repetitions as you can, focusing on technique and proper breathing.

When performing the perfect crunch, your abdominals will feel the burn. When tension is built up in your muscles, the tendency will be for your shoulders to rise up near your ears. This will inhibit you from keeping good form when performing your crunches, so it's important to be mindful of your body. If you feel that tension and your shoulders rising closer to your ears as a response, take a moment to breathe deeply and let the tension leave your body, then resume your crunches.

You might find that doing proper abdominal crunches won't amount to many repetitions at first, but as your core becomes stronger, you will be able to do more repetitions and your abdominals will start to look sleek, sexy and fit. The perfect crunch might be difficult to achieve, but the results are impossible to live without.

Learn more about this author, Shauna Zamarripa.
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