Better Ball AB Exercises

Using an exercise or stability ball offers you an opportunity to challenge your abdominal muscles for a more effective workout. Even the act of just sitting on the ball engages your abdominals. Your abs help maintain your balance and coordination. When you do ab exercises on the ball, you will see an improvement in all of your everyday activities because of the way your body has been trained. By strengthening your abdominal muscles, you can help prevent back pain by stabilizing your core, according to SpineHealth.com.

Sit-Up

The sit-up remains a good exercise for targeting your abs. What makes the sit-up so effective is that it engages all of your ab muscles in one action. When you do sit-ups on an exercise ball, you increase the range of motion you need to move your body forward. This extra bit of angle increases the effectiveness of this already useful exercise.
Begin seated on your ball. Walk out until the ball is under your upper back. Lean back slowly. Pull yourself up, using your abdominal muscles. Avoid pulling on your neck to avoid muscle strain. You can increase the difficulty by pausing when you have raised your body before returning to your starting position.

Plank with Ball

The plank, with stability ball prone, is a deceptively simple yet effective intermediate exercise which will target your rectus abdominus, transverse abdominus, and obliques muscles. Like the sit-up, its effectiveness lies in that it works the entire abdominal area.
Begin on your knees behind your ball. Place the ball under your belly and walk out so that you are balanced with your feet on the ball and your arms on the ground. You can begin with the ball on your thighs and eventually your shins as you gain strength. Hold the position for 5 to 10 complete breaths.

Plank Pike-Up

The plank pike-up or roll-in is a more advanced stability ball exercise. According to FitnessMagazine.com, this exercise will target both your core and your back to improve overall stability and coordination.
You will begin this exercise by getting into a push-up position using the ball. You will find this exercise easier to do if you are wearing tennis shoes. As you exhale, draw your hips up into an inverted v-shape. Hold the position briefly. This exercise is effective because your abs are actively working to pull your body into position. Begin by doing two sets of 10 reps each. As you get stronger, increase the amount of reps in each set. You should be able to do the stability ball prone workout comfortably before moving on to this more challenging exercise.