Medicine Ball Crunch

Teaching points

• Lay on your back the floor with the knees bent
  
  
• Hold a medicine ball in both hands, at arms length, pointing to the ceiling
  
  
• Slowly lift your head, neck and shoulders off the floor
  
  
• Keep the ball at arms length and the chin at the same distance from the chest at all times
  
  
• Slowly return to the starting position

Variations & progressions

• Perform on a swissball (fitball) to add a core stability dimension to the exercise

Muscles worked

• Rectus Abdominus
  
  
• Transversus Abdominus

Alternative exercises

• Crunch
  
  
• Crunch using a resistance band
  
  
• Crunch machine

Related injuries

• Lower back pain