Loaded crunches that build dense, blocky abs.
Round your spine and crunch with your abs, don't just bow at the hips.
Kneeling under a high pulley lets you load spinal flexion properly, your abs curl your ribs toward your pelvis against real resistance instead of just lifting your bodyweight. Because the stack scales, you can progressively overload your abs the same way you would any other muscle, which is why cable crunches build visible thickness that endless floor crunches don't. It earns its place as the core lift you treat like a lift, with weight, reps, and progression.
You're probably hinging at the hips and bowing forward instead of flexing your spine. Fix your hips in place, round your upper back, and think ribs to pelvis, the movement is smaller and more brutal than most people expect.
Loaded spinal flexion is well tolerated when you build it up like any lift, controlled reps, sensible weight, gradual progression. Grinding max-weight reps with a yanking rope is a different story, so treat it like training, not tugging.
Heavy enough that 10 to 15 strict reps burn, light enough that your hips never take over. If the whole stack is moving but your spine isn't flexing, the weight is running the show.
