Lying Lateral Flexion with an Exercise Ball

Video Transcript

"ALICE MONSAERT: This stability ball exercise is going to target the obliques which run on the side of the waist. So if you're looking down to trim down your waistline, then, this is one exercise that you'd want to incorporate into your training program. I'll take a kneeling position and begin to pull the ball into my hip and place the hip on top of the ball, then lean over and I'm--just placed my hand at the side, and what I'm trying to do is reduce the distance between my ribcage and my hip. So I'm lifting to the side. I've got gravity coming down on the muscle group, and I'm trying to lift my upper body against the gravity to contract that muscle. This would be a level one exercise. The one thing you want to think about is try not to lead the movement with the head but keep the head in line with the spine as much as you can. To advance the exercise, I come up on to both legs so I've added the balance challenge, place the hand by the ear, and again, the movement is initiated from the oblique muscles on the side, lifting up. And if I can drop over the ball even more, then, I'm getting more range of motion and more intensity on that muscle group. Again, a lateral side flexion, target the obliques."