I have always had that and never really been able to do many crunches and do them properly. What I get is an almost paralyzing pain on both sides of my spine from right above the waist to the middle of my back. I presume it's because I have slight scoliosis in that area of my spine from when I was a kid that never got fixed. Nothing visible or sensitive and I don't normally get lower back pain. But it's really difficult to do any kind of ab workouts. Any ideas on how I can work around it and if this is typical? I am certainly OK but not extremely fit so I suppose not having a very strong back could also add to the problem. I would love to hear any ideas. Thanks!