maratoolCrunch - Legs On Exercise Ball
How to do the crunch - legs on exercise ball
- Lie flat on your back with your feet resting on an exercise ball and your knees bent at a 90 degree angle.
- Place your feet three to four inches apart and point your toes inward so they touch.
- Place your hands lightly on either side of your head keeping your elbows in. Tip: Don't lock your fingers behind your head.
- Push the small of your back down in the floor in order to better isolate your abdominal muscles. This will be your starting position.
- Begin to roll your shoulders off the floor and continue to push down as hard as you can with your lower back. Your shoulders should come up off the floor only about four inches, and your lower back should remain on the floor. Breathe out as you execute this portion of the movement. Squeeze your abdominals hard at the top of the contraction and hold for a second. Tip: Focus on a slow, controlled movement. Refrain from using momentum at any time.
- Slowly go back down to the starting position as you inhale.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the rectus abdominis and the obliques, which flex the trunk forward and resist it being pulled into extension or twisted out of line.
Every exercise for:Abdominals
How this movement works
One joint changes angle and the resistance travels toward you along a single arc. Nothing is positioned to help, so tension stays where you aimed it and the usable load drops sharply against a multi-joint pull for the same muscle. Protect the range of motion; buying weight by shortening the arc defeats the point.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the abdominals too, using equipment this one does not:
- Crunches with Legs on Stability Ballexercise ball
- Double Kettlebell Windmillkettlebell
- Kneeling Cable Crunch With Alternating Oblique Twistscable
- Landmine 180'sbarbell
- Medicine Ball Full Twistmedicine ball
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 97 abdominals exercises in this database, 69 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.