Half Exercise Ball Ab Workouts

The BOSU balance trainer, or half exercise ball, is a soft-filled plastic dome mounted on a stable base with a rubberized bottom. The acronym stands for “both sides utilized,” because you can perform exercises with the dome side facing up or down. Much like the full-size exercise ball, the BOSU trainer brings an element of instability to your workout, meaning you don’t have to specifically target your core muscles to get a challenging abdominal workout.

Core Workouts

A majority of the exercises you can perform on the half ball to specifically target your abdominal and lower back muscles call for sitting or lying on top of the dome. A static V-sit involves balancing your lower back and hips on the ball as you extend your legs out at a 45-degree angle to the ball. The exercise engages your abdominal muscles to keep you balanced and to hold the position. Other supine or seated abdominal BOSU exercises include traditional crunches, knee-to-elbow crunches, side crunches, leg scissors, bicycling legs and the seated Russian twist.

Balance Workouts

Any exercise or piece of equipment that requires you to actively maintain your balance heavily recruits your nervous system and your deep core muscles, or the muscles that support your spine. Training your deep abdominal muscles is fundamental to the development of a strong core. Standing on either the platform or dome side of the BOSU is a basic balance exercise you can make more challenging by closing your eyes, lifting a foot, or performing double-leg or single-leg squats. You can also kneel on the dome with your feet off the floor and your arms extended out to your sides in a “T” position.

Plyometric Workouts

Plyometrics, or explosive jumps, are advanced-level exercises made more challenging when performed on the half-ball. The primary focus of plyometric training is to develop leg strength and power. When done on the BOSU, you must also recruit your abdominal muscles to land your jumps and hold your position on the dome. Squat jumps involve jumping from the floor onto the ball and squatting into the landing. Lateral jumps call for jumping sideways onto the dome, sticking the landing and then springing off the dome to the other side. You can also perform jump repeats on top of the ball, rotating your lower body in mid-air between landings.

Integrative Workouts

Integrative, or full-body, exercises are an ideal way to work your abdominal muscles on the BOSU trainer. You can construct a challenging workout by performing exercises such as planks, side planks, pushups, pikes and glute bridges. You can also increase the demands placed on your core by using more than one half-ball or adding a full stability ball to the mix. For example, you can modify a pushup by performing it with your hands on the dome or on the platform, or by placing your hands on the platform and your feet on the dome of another half-ball. Further increase the challenge by placing your hands on a stability ball and your feet on a half-ball, or by using three BOSUs — one under each hand and one under your feet.