Everyone's no doubt heard of the Ab Pulldown....

Where you kneel down on the mat in front of the Lat Pulldown tower
and...with the bar slightly over your head and elbows bent you "curl" your torso downward using your abs until your thighs are almost parallel with your chest.

Ever tried 'em this way?:-

STAND in front of the Lat Tower.
Now grasp the bar in the same way.
Move your feet backward a couple of steps until your whole weight is resting on the pulldown bar.
Now "curl" your torso down to about 90 degrees without moving your butt backward.

You'll probably have to rock backward a bit to come up.

And.... the tricky part will be having just enough weight on the rig that it will hold you in position to start with, without coming down prematurely yet having a weight that you can perform the ex.

This style seems to hit the abs in a slightly different way than the first example given because there's more muscles involved.:)

I pretty much always do rope crunches standing instead of on my knees. I had no choice since the pulldown machine at my gym has the bench in front of it (cannot be removed or moved either), but after trying them standing I found out I prefer them this way. Good post Hevy; that's a great exercise IMO. :tu:

I pretty much always do rope crunches standing instead of on my knees. I had no choice since the pulldown machine at my gym has the bench in front of it (cannot be removed or moved either), but after trying them standing I found out I prefer them this way. Good post Hevy; that's a great exercise IMO. :tu:

If you wanted to do kneeling rope crunches, couldn't you just kneel on the bench?

If you wanted to do kneeling rope crunches, couldn't you just kneel on the bench?
No, I tried it, too narrow and too high too. :(