What's more effective?

[white pony 16]

Hi! Just wondering, which is more effective, crunches or push-ups? I'm doing push-ups on my knees, so compare that to crunches. It feels like the push-ups are getting more done, but I wanted to go to the masses and see what you guys had to say!  

[Iconised Ghost]

you mean in terms of burning fat? They're probably pretty similar. It just depends what muscles you want to strengthen i guess  

[Divash]

That depends on what you want to be effective at doing.

1. Crunches: More effective at building abdominal strength/stamina.

2. Push-ups: More effective at building arm and shoulder strength.

3. Running: More effective at building lower-body strength, speed, and endurance.

Burning fat? Building muscle bulk? Toning muscles? Increasing speed, strength, endurance, balance, agility, flexibility?  

[white pony 16]

Well, burning fat. My mom says that when you build up muscle, there's less fat. She also recommends that you do weight-lifting instead of cardio because it burns calories faster.  

[Iconised Ghost]

weight lifting does not burn calories faster, you burn much less in an hour of weight lifting than you do in an hour of cardio. The thing is that weight lifting increases muscle mass. Muscles require energy just to be maintained. So by weight lifting, you increase your fat burning "engine" so to speak. So you will lose more weight probably if you include some weight lifting in your exercise regime. But i think that cardio is still important as well.