90 Degree Heel Touch
Reviewed by Tim Renting, Physiotherapist
The 90 Degree Heel Touch builds controlled core tension through a steady curling motion, helping improve abdominal strength and control.
90 Degree Heel Touch
Muscles Worked: 90 Degree Heel Touch
The 90 Degree Heel Touch mainly works your abs, especially the muscles that curl your torso up and keep your ribs pulled down as you reach toward your heels. Because your hips and knees stay bent at 90 degrees, your midsection has to stay braced the whole set instead of relaxing between reps. The deeper core muscles also help stop your lower back from arching while you keep tension through the movement. You should feel a steady burn across the front of your stomach more than in your neck or hip flexors, which matters because higher-effort training is closely tied to muscle-building changes over time.
Technique and form
How to perform the 90 Degree Heel Touch
- Start by lying on your back with your legs extended and arms at your sides.
- Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart, while keeping your lower back pressed into the floor.
- Engage your core muscles and lift your shoulders slightly off the ground, maintaining a neutral neck position throughout the exercise.
- Extend your arms along your sides with palms facing down, hovering just above the floor.
- In a controlled motion, bend forward at the waist to touch both your feet while exhaling and keeping your shoulders off the ground.
- Return to the starting position while inhaling, maintaining core engagement and keeping your shoulders elevated.
- Continue this movement in a fluid motion, focusing on using your core activation rather than momentum to power the movement.
Important information
- Keep your lower back pressed into the floor throughout the entire exercise to protect your spine and properly engage your core.
- Avoid lifting your head or straining your neck—maintain a small gap between your chin and chest.
- Focus on a controlled tempo rather than speed, ensuring you feel the contraction in your abdominal muscles with each repetition.
- If you experience lower back discomfort, try bending your knees more or place your feet wider apart for better stability.
Is the 90 Degree Heel Touch good for muscle growth?
Yes. The 90 Degree Heel Touch can help build your abs because it keeps them under tension for a long stretch of the set, especially when you move slowly and keep your lower back from popping up. Research on hard resistance training shows that higher-effort work is linked with muscle-building changes, which supports using challenging bodyweight ab work like this when sets are taken close to fatigue.
- Long time under tension — Your abs do not get much of a break because your shoulders stay off the floor and your legs stay fixed. That makes this tougher than quick crunch reps where tension drops at the bottom.
- Extra demand from the leg position — Holding your hips and knees at 90 degrees gives your abs a second job: keep your trunk steady while you reach. If that position feels too hard, knee-touch-crunch is usually easier to control.
- Easy to progress without equipment — You can make it harder by slowing each reach, pausing when your fingers touch your heel, or adding reps before switching to a tougher version like lying-toe-touch. That gives you a clear path for progressive overload even with bodyweight only.
- Best for focused ab work — This is an isolation move, so it fits well after heavier lifts when you want direct ab volume without adding much whole-body fatigue. Higher-load and mixed-load training both change how hard muscles work during endurance-style efforts, which backs up using different rep speeds and set lengths to keep this exercise productive over time.
Programming for muscle growth
Do 2-4 sets of 12-20 reps, or 30-45 seconds of continuous reps, with 30-60 seconds rest. Train it 2-4 times per week at the end of your workout. Use slow, clean reps and stop 1-2 reps before your form breaks, because the goal is to keep tension on the abs instead of rushing through the reps.
90 Degree Heel Touch Variations
Alternative Exercises
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FAQ - 90 Degree Heel Touch
The 90 Degree Heel Touch primarily targets the rectus abdominis while also engaging the deeper core muscles that stabilize your spine. Because both hands reach toward your heels at the same time, there is no rotational component, making it an effective isolation move for straight abdominal development.
Lie on your back with your hips and knees bent at 90 degrees and your feet flat on the floor. Brace your core, then lift your head, shoulders, and upper back off the floor by curling your torso upward. Reach both hands toward your heels at the same time, pause briefly at the top, then lower back down under control.
For an easier version, reduce your range of motion by not lifting your shoulders as high off the ground or reaching only partway toward your heels. You can also keep your arms bent instead of fully extended, which shortens the lever and makes the movement easier to control.
Avoid swinging your arms, pulling on your neck, or rushing through the reps. Do not let your torso drop too low between repetitions, and do not turn the movement into a side-to-side reach. Keep your hips and knees bent to 90 degrees, maintain control through the full trunk-flexion phase, and reach both hands toward your heels at the same time.
For strength development, perform 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps with controlled movement. For endurance or as part of a HIIT circuit, increase to 20-30 reps with minimal rest between sets. Incorporate this exercise 2-3 times weekly, allowing at least 48 hours for your core muscles to recover between sessions.
90 Degree Heel Touch
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