Medicine ball ab workout

by Jason L

Any ab exercises where you use some sort of weight is best. People need to treat their abs like any other muscle (so doing 500 crunches isn’t a good idea…you wouldn’t do 500 curls with 2 pound dumbbells, would ya’?). Here’s one that I like to do:

Take a medicine ball (some medicine balls have handles, so if you can find one of those, that’d be great). Sit on the floor (or workout mat). Hold the medicine ball between your hands in front of you.

Bend your knees a bit and lift your feet off the ground a couple inches (just this alone takes effort from your abs to stay balanced on your butt). Now, swing the ball to the right and hit the ground with it. And in one fluid arc-motion, swing across your body to the left and hit the ground to the left of you.

Make sure you really twist your torso to hit the ground as far around your body as you can. And smack the ground with the ball fairly firmly to really stimulate your abs. Keep going back and forth – right, left, right left – for as many times as you can. If you get over 12 per side, you should increase the weight of the medicine ball and/or you need to reach farther out when twisting and hitting the ground.

This exercise takes some practice, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a great exercise to hit your abs from all directions.