Whether you are an athlete or not, core strength is important. All functional movement depends on core strength, and this happens to be especially true in athletic activities. Though whether you are washing the dishes or snowboarding down a mountain, having developed core strength will make you do better at everything you do and help prevent injuries.
If you want to develop your core strength, there are all kinds of exercises to help you do so. However, one of the easiest ways to do this is to use an exercise ball. Training with one enhances some of the most commonly performed exercises out there, such as sit-up and push-ups, into core-defining routines. The following are some of the most popular exercises you can do with an exercise ball to increase your core strength.
You can do push-up on an exercise ball by resting your thighs over the top of it and placing your hands shoulder with apart, with elbows straight, in front of you. In this inclined position, you will work core muscles at the top of your chest as well as in your triceps.
Sitting on the exercise ball at about a sixty degree angle, so that you are not on the top and almost leaning against it, will put you in a good position to do sit-ups. You will end up leaning back so that your body falls over the ball, hands behind your head. Every time you rise up, you will be performing a crunch that targets upper abdominal, hip, and core muscles.
How about some leg work. Get into a lunging position and place one foot, sole facing up wards, over the ball. Now lean forward and roll the ball back with your foot over it. This will build strength in your quadriceps and help shape your buttocks.
Now target your triceps. With your hands over the exercise ball, lean down so that your biceps touch the tops of your forearms. Keep your feet together behind you. Now slowly push yourself off the ball, keeping elbows straight.
Lastly let’s go over something for the shoulders. You will need dumbbells for this but the exercise targets your deltoids and will help your core develop, too. Lay over the exercise ball, stomach down. With your arms straight down, lift them up until your elbows bend at ninety degree angles straight out in front of you and parallel to the ground.
These are just five out of hundreds of exercises you can perform using a medicine ball. Your core will feel worked if you are not used to developing it, but in time you will get used to it and you will notice an increase in ability in any physical task you do.