1. Home
  2. Health
  3. Weight Training
photo of Paul Rogers
Weight Training Blog

By Paul Rogers, About.com Guide to Weight Training

Get the Best Abs With the Fitball Crunch

Monday May 5, 2008

Exercise ball, fitball or Swiss ball -- they're all essentially the same thing -- a big inflated ball that you can use to do body exercises on.

(c) Paul Rogers / Cooloola Gym

A "crunch" is an exercise for the abdominal muscles of the stomach area. This involves lying on the back and lifting the back and shoulders off the ground while tightening the abdominal muscles.

You can also do this on a fitness ball. The advantages are that the slight instability requires that you recruit the side muscles called the "obliques" as well, and that the ball instability provides a more lateral working of the whole abdominal area. It is proven as one of the best exercises for the abdominals.

---> How to Do the Fitball Crunch

More reading:

Comments

No comments yet. Leave a Comment

Leave a Comment

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic. Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title="">, <b>, <i>, <strike>

Discuss
Community Forum
Explore Weight Training
About.com Special Features

Learn how you can reduce your your numbers with these nutrition and exercise tips. More >

Keep yourself, and your family, happy and healthy this fall with these tips. More >

  1. Home
  2. Health
  3. Weight Training

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.