The therapy ball or exercise ball offers new ways to incorporate core exercises into your fitness plan. The therapy ball adds a bit of fun to your workouts while providing a way to execute more challenging exercises for greater health benefits. Even sitting on an exercise ball works your core muscles as your body attempts to maintain balance and control.
Crunches
Standard crunches are an effective way to work your core muscles. When you perform them on a therapy ball, you increase the range of motion, thereby ramping up the intensity of this exercise. This factor makes it a more useful exercise for working your abdominals. When performing crunches, you should take care not to strain your neck by pulling it forward. Rather, let your abdominals lift your torso. The farther you extend over the back of the ball, the more difficult the movement will be. This factor allows you to adjust the difficulty of the exercise based on your abdominal strength.
Oblique Crunches
Oblique crunches allow you to work the side muscles of your abdominal region. These can help add definition to core muscles and serve as a good accompaniment to exercises targeting the so-called six-pack muscle in front of your abdomen. Rather than rising straight up, you will twist so that your extended arm touches the opposite side knee. You should feel a gentle stretch along your side.
Jackknife
The jackknife or reverse crunch is a more advanced exercise that targets the deepest muscle of your abdominal region, the transverse abdominis. You begin this exercise by kneeling and placing the ball under your chest. You will then walk out until the ball is resting below your lower legs. The exercise movement invovlves simply bringing the ball forward to your chest and then back again. The exercise requires strong abs for maintaining balance. You may find it helpful to perform the jackknife on an exercise mat for greater stability.
Knee Raise
The knee raise, an intermediate exercise, will target the muscles of your lower abdomen. Sitting on your therapy ball, walk out until the ball is resting under your middle back. You will then reach behind you to hold onto an immovable object such as a table or desk. Then, you will lift your bent knees to your chest, pause briefly and return to your starting position. To increase the difficulty, you can extend your legs and keeping them straight rather than bending them.
References
- American Council on Exercise: Stability Ball Sit-ups / Crunches
- Spine-Health: Core Body Strength Exercises
- "Lean, Long and Strong: The 6-Week Strength-Training, Fat-burning Program for Women"; Wini Linguvic; 2004
- "The Abs Diet: The Six-week Plan to Flatten Your Stomach and Keep You Lean for Life"; David Zinczenko and Ted Spiker; 2004
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