Thigh Anchor Bicycle Crunch Kiss
Quick Intro
Thigh Anchor Bicycle Crunch Kiss uses the bicycle crunch, a core exercise where you alternate bringing an elbow toward the opposite knee in a cycling motion. You lie on your backs side by side with your heads together and the sides of your thighs pressed against each other, crunch at a matched, slow pace and meet for a brief kiss at the peak of the twist. The obliques, abdominals and deep hip flexors carry the work for both of you equally, since you’re performing the identical movement.
Form cues, the full list of muscles involved and ways to make the crunch easier or harder all live at Bicycle Crunch.
What You’ll Need
A mat or soft floor wide enough for two people lying side by side.
How to Do It Together
- Lie side by side. On your backs with your heads together at the same end, close enough that the sides of your thighs press lightly against each other. Hands go behind your heads.
- Crunch at a matched pace. Perform bicycle crunches slowly and under control, keeping the thigh contact throughout.
- Meet at the peak. When your twist turns you toward each other, meet for a brief kiss at the top of the twist.
- Keep going. Continue for the set, with the thigh contact steady the whole way.
Exhale into each twist and kiss, inhale between reps.
Why the Thighs Anchor the Crunch
Lying side by side, the thigh contact does two jobs. It steadies you against rolling sideways when you twist, and it works as a built-in tempo check. When you both twist toward each other at the same moment, your near knees come in together, so your thighs stay in contact as they slide. If one of you speeds up or lags, the contact loosens or breaks, and that tells you both to settle the pace without a word.
The pace has to drop for the kiss to work. A bicycle crunch at its usual speed is a quick alternating rhythm, and meeting a face at the peak of a twist needs more time than that gives. Slowing the movement until the kiss actually lands, with your ribcage doing the rotating, is the whole technique here. A rushed set tends to produce a clumsy bump, and slowing down improves the crunch as well as the kiss.
The kiss falls on the twist that turns you toward each other. On the next rep you twist away, and you carry on with the same pace and the same thigh contact until you come back around. If your twists are not matched, one of you can find the other turning the wrong way at the peak, and that’s the other sign to slow down and re-sync.
Your neck is the thing most likely to complain first. Lifting your head toward a kiss at the peak of a twist asks it to hold position for a moment longer than a plain crunch does. Lower your head between reps if you need to, and stop reaching for the kiss the moment the twist stops delivering your face to its partner. A late or missed kiss is fine, and a strained neck isn’t worth it.
Bicycle Crunch Touch lays you head to head with palms meeting overhead, which suits a couple who prefer a lighter touch, and Sit-Up Kiss Peak puts a kiss at the top of a different abdominal exercise.
If You’re at Different Fitness Levels
A slower pace and a reduced twist range suit a couple who are both newer to the exercise, with the thigh contact and the kiss unchanged. If one of you is stronger, each of you works at your own comfortable pace and you meet for the kiss every few reps instead of every twist. Since different paces loosen the thigh contact, those shared kisses become the points where you re-sync, which keeps the fitter partner from waiting around and the other from chasing.
Safety and Consent
Standard bicycle crunch cautions apply. Keep your lower back pressed toward the floor and avoid yanking on your neck with your hands. Never strain your neck to reach the kiss faster than the twist allows.
Settle beforehand that you are both happy to have your thighs pressed together through the set.
Every connection moment in these exercises is something either partner can skip or scale back at any point, including this one, no explanation needed. Bicycle crunches without the kiss are just the crunch.
FAQ
Does the kiss happen on every rep? It happens on the twist that turns you toward each other. On the twist that turns you away, you keep the pace and the thigh contact and wait for the next one.
What if our thighs lose contact? It usually means your tempos have drifted. Slow down together until the contact settles again.
My neck tires before my abs do. What helps? Lower your head between reps, shorten the twist and let the kiss come only when your neck can hold the position comfortably.
Why do we lie side by side here when another version lies head to head? Bicycle Crunch Touch meets at the palms overhead. This one needs your faces and your thighs close, so you lie alongside each other.
Can we do this at normal bicycle crunch speed? No, it needs a slower pace. At full speed the kiss has no time to land and the contact turns into a bump.
Can we just do bicycle crunches without the kiss? Yes. The plain version is Bicycle Crunch, which works the same muscles with no kiss at all.
Built on Bicycle Crunch. Bicycle Crunch Touch uses the same crunch with a palm touch overhead, and Sit-Up Kiss Peak puts a kiss at the top of a sit-up.