Stability Medicine Ball Crunch -
Intermediate Abs Exercise
If you have mastered the form for
stability ball crunches you can progress them by adding some resistance.
The resistance can come from anything with mass such as a pet, dumbbell, weight
plate or medicine ball. The most obvious reason for doing the stability ball
medicine crunch is if you have a medicine ball handy as there are no real
advantages of using a medicine ball over other forms of resistance.
There are 3 primary ways you can perform the medicine ball crunch on the
stability ball. The first, and easiest way is by holding the medicine ball in
your outstretched arms and bringing the ball up towards the ceiling for the
entire crunch. Slightly more difficult is holding the medicine ball against your
chest for the entire crunch. The most difficult way to use the medicine ball as
resistance for the stability ball crunch is to hold it behind your head or even
with your outstretched arms above your head.
Abdominal exercises with added resistance such as this one are not for
everyone. For most people, the weight of your upper torso and arms is easily
enough resistance. Only use the medicine ball if you can easily perform the desired amount of reps
with perfect form without. Adding resistance to abdominal exercises can help
hypotrophy the abdominal muscles in addition to strengthening them. This is good
if you are have just a little extra body fat covering your mid-section and want
to see some definition or if you are super skinny with no abdominal definition.
If you have a lot of excess body fat, doing cardio
is making a better use of your time.
