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How to do Fitness Ball Crunches for your Abs - The Photographic Guide

Learn how to use the fitness ball crunch to get sexy abs with this step by step photo tutorial

The fitness ball crunch has been scientifically proven to work your abs better than a regular crunch. The reason for this is two fold:

1. The angle of the ball allows you to lean back quite far in order to give your abdominals a better stretch;

2. The movement and bounce of the ball forces your abs to contract to stay balanced.

However, the fitness ball is quite useless for your abs if your technique is wrong. You will bring a lot of other muscles into play and end up with a sore neck and some very underworked abdominals.

Here is how to do a fitness ball crunch correctly:

1. Lay on the ball and start with your feet flat on the ground a good distance away from the ball. If your feet are too close you will lose balance.

Lean back and place the middle of your back squarely on the ball and your finger tips on your forehead. Do not put your hand behind your head as you may be tempted to tug on your neck.

You should be able to feel a good stretch in your abs.

2. Take a breath in and tense your abdominal muscles. You must learn to use this tension to crunch yourself up as opposed to any momentum you are able to generate.

Breathe out and curl yourself up by contracting your abs. You should start with your head, shoulders and then middle torso. You are not trying to lift yourself up like a see-saw.

3. Curl your torso up one slight bit more and perform a final “crunch” of the abs. This is where the fitness ball works its magic as your upper body is now on a slightly higher angle than your lower body which allows you to crunch harder.

Hold this for a count of one and then slowly lower yourself back down for the next repetition.

Tips for the fitness ball

There are many ways to spice up the fitness ball crunch to ensure your abs get a better workout each time you work them out.

When you have mastered the basic crunch technique you should try adding a light weight disc on your chest in order to provide added resistance to challenge your abs.

You can also do a twist so that at the final crunch position you twist to try and touch your elbow to the opposite knee. This makes the contraction harder on one side of the abs.

You should always perform each repetition as slow as possible. There is no prize for finishing first. Your abs get a much bigger challenge when you move slow and really force them to support you and keep you balanced.

Conclusion
Technique is so important when it comes to training the abs. Your results will be solely dependant on how determined you are in perfecting your crunch technique. Take your time and do it slow.

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