Medicine Ball Exercises
The medicine ball exercises are mostly used to develop upper body strength and workout your abs. The medicine ball is also referred to as the exercise ball and is a good addition to your home gym. Whether you like working without weights or with weights, including some medicine ball workouts will help you achieve good fitness levels. One of the best part of the medicine ball is that it is available in different sizes and weights.
Medicine Ball Workouts
If you planning to include exercise ball workouts in your routine make sure you follow correct form and posture to avoid injury and get optimum results. Like any other workout program it is essential that you do a 5 - 8 minute warm up routine before you start your exercises. For those who workout at home one of the exercise equipment you should have is the medicine ball to give you a good upper body workout.
Crunches
One of the most effective medicine ball exercises for abs are the ball crunches, ab exercises with medicine ball aren't complete without crunches. Lie down on your back, bend your knees and plant your feet firmly into the floor next to your buttocks. Ask your workout partner or trainer to stand on your feet. Now hold the ball close to your chest with both hands and crunch your torso when you come up. When you are up, hand the ball to your partner or trainer and then go down. Once you are down again crunch your torso come up and fetch the ball to go back down again. This will tone and strengthen your ab muscles and is one of the medicine ball core exercises.
Obliques
Exercising the oblique muscles is one of the most difficult tasks, but with a medicine ball it is manageable. medicine ball workouts for women aren't complete without exercising the oblique muscles. For working the oblique muscles lie down on your back and bend your knees and lift your legs so that your thighs are perpendicular to the ground and your calves are parallel to the ground. Hold the ball between your legs and first rotate the legs towards the left side, try to touch the floor with your left knee without lifting your back off the floor. Do 15 - 20 repetitions on one side then switch to the other side, this is a great way to get rid of your love handles.
Oblique Twist
Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you, now ask your partner to sit with their back touching your back. Hold the ball over your thighs with both your hands and twist to your left side as much as possible to hand the ball to your partner. The partner in turn has to twist the torso to their right side to receive the ball. Now the partner will have to twist to their left side and hand you the ball on your right side. You will have to twist to your right to receive the ball.
Ball Slams
One of the easy to execute medicine ball exercise is the ball slam, and it is used to tone your upper abdominal muscles. Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width and hold the ball in both your arms. Now raise your arms over your head and slam the ball on the floor by crunching your abdomen. Make sure you generate the power from your abdomen rather than just your hands. Do 15 - 20 repetitions, if you want to increase the difficulty level slam the ball with one arm. Include the ball slams in your routine of core exercises with medicine ball.
Medicine ball exercises are one of the best ways to strengthen your core muscles without using weights and can easily be done at home. To avoid injuries and get good results just make sure your technique and form is correct.
