Ab Exercises using Stability Ball

Craig Ballantyne from TurbulenceTraining.com returns to show you fat burning abs exercises using just a stability ball.

The difficulty level is beginner to moderate, nothing one can’t handle. As always I can’t say enough, but maintain your form. Go for quality rather than quantity.

Workout #1

Here are my 3 favourite stability ball ab exercises that can be done at home and will build your abdominals to give you that six pack look.

The first exercise is the stability ball rollout. So to get into starting position, kneel on a mat, with your body in an upright position and hands on the ball. Now, roll out for a count of 3 seconds, stretching your abs, and then return to the starting position by contracting your abs for a 2 second count. Perform a total of 10 repetitions for this exercise.

After the stability ball rollout, the next exercise to perform is the stability ball jackknife. There are a couple of ways this abs exercise can be done; one, with your elbows on a bench and feet on the stability ball, or alternatively, with your hands on the ground and your body in the pushup position.

For the purposes of this explanation, I am going to do it with my elbows on the bench. So to start, place your body in a plank position with your elbows on the bench and feet on the stability ball. Next, while bracing your abs, tuck your knees up to your chest and back out again. This abs exercise although very effective is not quite as hard as the stability ball rollout.

The third exercise of the stability ball triset is the plank with elbows on the ball. According to Men’s Health, this exercise is 30% harder than a regular plank with elbows on the ground. So, to get in position, place your elbows on the ball and your body in a straight line.

If you want to make this more difficult you can do a couple different things. The first is to move your elbows in front of your shoulders, and secondly, which is even harder, is to roll the ball in and out. In all scenarios, you want to hold this position for 20 seconds. For advanced levels, a 30 second hold is very good, especially after performing the previous two exercises.

Perform the above exercises for 5 minutes twice a week and combine that with the TT supersets and interval training 3 times a week and you will begin to burn belly fat and achieve that flat stomach. Here are my 3 favorite stability ball exercises for your abs.

Notice there are no stability ball crunches. I know they work your abs hard, but stability ball crunches can be hard on your back.

So we just focused on three other stability ball abs exercises that will get you great results.

Workout #2

You’re probably thinking two workouts per week at only 20 minutes are not enough to lose fat. To be honest, however, if you combine a great diet with those two workouts, then you’ll experience incredible changes.

But, if you want to do a little more then you can do my favourite stability ball circuit on your off days. This is an excellent way to strengthen your abdominals as well as your hamstrings in a way that is hard to replicate with barbell and dumbbell exercises.

This 10-15 minute circuit will be six exercises added on at the end of a Depletion workout or you can use it as a third workout and include intervals at the end. For the circuit, you will complete each exercise with no rest in between. Once you have completed a circuit, rest one minute and then repeat two to three times.

For the stability ball circuit you will alternate between ab exercises and lowerback/hamstring exercises.

To start, you will do the stability ball ab rollout. What you want to do is place your knees on a mat, your hands on top of the ball, and then roll out and back in. Now, there are many different ways to do this exercise. For instance, you can roll out and back in quickly or you can go really slow on the way out and quick on the way back in. The important thing is to mix it up every time you work out. Also, be sure to keep your abs braced and your body in a straight line throughout the exercise.

After the rollout exercise, you will do stability ball leg curls for 20 repetitions. Place your heels up on the ball, bridge your hips up, and curl in then out.

Move immediately into a 30 second plank with your elbows on the ball.

Next you will do stability ball hip extensions for 20 repetitions. This exercise will work your hamstrings in a similar way to the leg curl, with a slight difference. Although this exercise doesn’t look like much, you will feel a strong contraction in your hamstrings.

Once you’ve finished all the repetitions move quickly into stability ball jackknives. Place your hands on the ground and your feet on the ball and then bring your knees into your chest for 15-20 repetitions. If you want to increase the difficulty, then you can hold your position in the “out” position for 3 seconds.

To finish off the stability ball circuit, you will do back extensions. Find a wide base of support and then perform the exercise for 15 repetitions.

Now, rest for one minute and then go through the circuit two to three more times. At the end of your circuit workout, you can include some kettlebell swings or do regular intervals for 10-15 minutes.

Workout #3

This is an alternative ab exercise circuit that you can do with just a stability ball and your bodyweight to easily replace the cable abs exercises.

Just a warning for those who have low back problems; all of the exercises in this circuit are advanced abdominal exercises, involving more spinal flexion. So, if you do have low back problems, then you should skip this workout.

To start out, you will do a stability ball Crunch, using a three second eccentric in place of the hanging leg raise. Do 15 reps for this exercise.

Next, you’ll move immediately into a stability ball Rollout. So, with your knees on a mat, and your arms extended in front on the ball, keep your body in a straight line and stretch your abs by rolling the ball out, and then contract your abs to roll the ball back in.

From here, you’ll go right into a X-Body Mountain Climber. In this exercise, start by getting in the regular push up position and then bring your opposite knee up to your opposite elbow and back out. Alternate sides.

That’s it for the circuit. So rest, one minute and then repeat the circuit two more times for a total of three circuits.