Strength Training
Stability Ball Band Crunches
This exercise provided courtesy of Devin Wicks, Director of Fitness Operations at the University of California, Berkeley and specialty strength coach for some of the university's elite sports teams.
Benefits
Balance work with resistance is the key to core training. Here, a stability ball and a resistance band combine to take your abs to the limit.
Muscles Worked
Abdominals.
Starting Position
Pull a resistance band around an upright post, or the leg of a flat bench that is bolted into the floor. Put a stability ball one half of the band's length away from the band's point of attachment on the pole or bench leg. Taking one handle of the band in each hand, sit down on the ball with your back toward the band's point of attachment. Slide down on the ball until it is under your lower back, midway between your sacrum and scapula. Your legs will be bent with feet on the floor, shoulder-width apart. Holding a handle in each hand, extend your arms straight down, until your palms cover where your front pockets would be if you were wearing jeans. The tube will be stretched over your shoulders, extending to the pole.
Exercise
Benefits
Balance work with resistance is the key to core training. Here, a stability ball and a resistance band combine to take your abs to the limit.
Muscles Worked
Abdominals.
Starting Position
Pull a resistance band around an upright post, or the leg of a flat bench that is bolted into the floor. Put a stability ball one half of the band's length away from the band's point of attachment on the pole or bench leg. Taking one handle of the band in each hand, sit down on the ball with your back toward the band's point of attachment. Slide down on the ball until it is under your lower back, midway between your sacrum and scapula. Your legs will be bent with feet on the floor, shoulder-width apart. Holding a handle in each hand, extend your arms straight down, until your palms cover where your front pockets would be if you were wearing jeans. The tube will be stretched over your shoulders, extending to the pole.
Exercise
- From the starting position, keep your arms locked straight (no bending your elbows!) and use a transverse abdominal contraction to draw your navel inward as you lift your shoulders and slide your palms down your thighs until you nearly touch your knees.
- Reverse the motion, resisting the band's pull as you slide your hands back up to your "pockets", keeping your elbows straight all the while. Keep some abdominal contraction even at the bottom of your motion; you'll need it to resist the tube's constant pull.
