Bye-bye, AB flab: how to add resistance to your crunches for an even firmer, stronger midsection - Do It Right

Shape, Jan, 2003 by Linda Shelton

THE MOVE Medicine-ball overhead crunch

THE PAYOFF Doing your crunches with a medicine ball makes training your abdominals more efficient, challenging and effective, as the added weight helps to fatigue your muscles in fewer reps. You'll work your entire midsection evenly, yielding flatter, firmer abs -- faster.

THE RIGHT WAY

* Lie on your back with knees bent and in line with ankles, feet flat on the floor.

* Holding a medicine ball with both hands, lift your arms above your head, arms slightly bent and in line with your ears.

* Contract your abdominals to bring your spine to a neutral position, buttocks relaxed.

* Maintain arm position as you curl your torso upward, moving smoothly as one unit, flexing only from the spine and bringing ribs and hips toward each other to lift shoulder blades off the floor.

* Pause, then lower to starting position.

WEIGHT AND WORKOUT GUIDELINES

Do this move 2-3 times a week as part of a regular abdominal-strengthening program. Use a 2- to 6-pound medicine ball, making sure not to impede form with too much weight. Begin with 2 sets of 10-15 reps, resting 1 minute between sets. To progress, add a third set.

ADVANCED TIP

To make this move more challenging, perform it on a stability ball; lie with your torso supported on the ball from shoulder blades to hips, knees bent and feet flat on the floor.

EXPERT ADVICE

"Keep arms extended and motionless by your ears as you lift your torso upward," says Lafayette, La.-based Mike Morris, NASM-certified personal trainer and president of Resist-A-Ball Inc. "This maximizes the strengthening effect on the abs and ensures that you're not using momentum to 'throw' the ball over your head as you crunch."

RELATED ARTICLE: MISTAKES TO AVOID

* Don't use a ball so heavy that you don't have a full range of motion; this will stress the neck and shoulders.

* Don't arch your back as you return to the starting position, lifting arms overhead; this can place pressure on the discs in the lower back.

* Don't Jerk your body into position as you lift your upper torso; this will place stress on the spine and neck.

MUSCLES WORKED

abdominals:

1. rectus abdominis

2. external obliques

3. internal obliques

4. transverse abdominis