Train your abdomen intensely with these seven exercises with medicine ball

In the variety we can find progress, therefore, if you want to see results in your physical work, we suggest you train the abdomen intensely with these seven exercises with medicine ball.

The medicine ball, traditionally used in rehabilitation and physical therapy, has a heavy filling and therefore can be used as a load of different movements. But also, it also allows a different training if we use it as an unstable support surface.

Seven exercises with medicine ball

Using the ball as a load we can perform the following movements to work the abdomen intensely and also request the effort of other muscles of the core or middle area of ​​the body:

• Russian twists or russian twist : it is a great exercise to request the effort of the greater rectus of the abdomen, obliques and to a lesser extent flexors of the hip and lumbar that contribute to stabilize the body with each trunk rotation. You can see his execution technique in our Crossfit guide .
• Lumberjacks or woodchoppers : they are very complete exercises that work straight greater than the abdomen and oblique mainly, and although we usually do them with a pulley , we can also execute them with a ball between both hands as a load. It is possible to do it from top to bottom, in reverse or horizontally.
• Trunk lifts with medicine ball : it is the crunch that we used to always perform in each abdominal rout a short time ago, which we can give a turn to work more intensely if between the hands and close to the chest we put a medicine ball that will serve as a load for each trunk elevation.
• Abdominal V with a balloon : the classic exercise that we perform by raising trunk and legs at the same time to form a “V” with our body, we can also intensify it using a ball as a ballast between both hands.

If we use the medicine ball as a support element we will work on instability and the difficulty of the exercises will be superior, allowing us an intensity training for our abdominals. Some example exercises of it are:

• Bridge or plank on medicine ball : with both feet, both hands or both feet on a medicine ball we can work transverse of the abdomen, rectus major and oblique intensely to hold the contraction all the time to maintain body posture on unstable surfaces.
• Mountain climber on medicine ball : the climber is a very complete exercisethat works abdominals and also, muscles of legs, arms and shoulders. If we do it by supporting both hands on a medicine ball, the middle area should work twice as hard to maintain the posture and not fall in the middle of the movement.
• Abdominal extensions with medicine ball: this movement can be done with a bar or with the abdominal wheel, however, we can also support knees on the floor and both hands on a medicine ball that we roll to move it away from the legs and thus, perform intense abdominal extensions.

With these seven exercises with medicine ball you can achieve a different and intense training that allows you to see progress in your abdominal work.