Muscles Targeted: The inverted exercise ball leg pull ins is one of the more difficult abdominal exercises that targets the entire abdominal area. At the same time, you work also strengthen your arms and legs.
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Exercise Instructions: Using an exercise ball, get into a pushup position and place your feet on top of the exercise ball. Slowly raise your butt up in the air and crunch your abdominals in tightly while flexing your midsection at the top of the movement. Slowly lower your body down to the starting position and repeat.
Why This Exercise is Important: When you have been doing the same abdominal exercises over and over, your body will begin to adapt and the effects lessen over time. While beginners should start with abdominal floor exercises, they should also avoid following the same ab routine all the time. If you want to kick up your abdominal workouts another notch, you need to challenge your body and graduate to more difficult exercises. The inverted exercise ball leg pull ins is for the intermediate to advanced person. It is important because aside from toning and tightening your midsection, it will also help you develop overall balance. It strengthens your arms and legs, and gives you a little cardio exercise as you pull your legs in and out. With just one AB exercise, you work several different muscle groups of your body which is the main reason this is the perfect exercise to add to your abdominal workout.
Things To Avoid: Before starting any exercise, consult with your doctor first. If you are new to working out, do not dive into inverted exercise ball leg pull ins. Strengthen your arms and legs first before attempting to do this. When doing it for the first time, ask your trainer or a friend to spot you to prevent injury.
Choose a solid surface on which to do the inverted exercise ball leg pull ins. Make sure that the floor is not inclined as you might be unable to control the exercise ball. While it’s not totally impossible to do this exercise outdoors, it would be a lot better to do it indoors where the floor is even and suited for it. Avoid any type of slippery surface when doing this exercise in order to completely control the ball so you can avoid injury.
Place your palms firmly on the floor and aligned to your shoulder. They should not be too close nor too far apart so that you can maintain your balance. Your legs should be just over the hump at the top of the ball so that when you pull it in, the exercise ball does not slide out. Do not use momentum to propel yourself as you can injure yourself if you go over the ball. Make sure that your butt does not go up too far that it aligns itself with your back. Pace yourself and do not go too fast when pulling the ball in. Maintain control of the ball by drawing power from your core and not your arms or legs. Tighten your abs as you perform each repetition.
Reps and Sets: Start by doing 8-10 reps for 2-3 sets. As you master the inverted exercise ball leg pull ins, increase your reps to 20-25 for 3-5 sets. Do this exercise 2-3 times a week for maximum results and always focus on the quality of each rep versus the quantity.
Other Exercises To Use: You can add the inverted exercise ball leg pull ins to abdominal crunches and decline abdominal crunches to target your upper and lower abdominals. Do some oblique crunches which are great for tightening up your love handles. View our extensive database of exercise guides for a comprehensive list of exercises that target the abs.
