Crunch Exercises

Video Transcript

"One of the simplest exercises you can do, at first you'll notice I have a medicine ball here, I'm going to put this out of the way for a second cause I'm going to demonstrate with that later. But first one that we can do is without the medicine ball. I've got a soft surface underneath me, a mat. You can do this on carpet or anything like that. What I'm going to do is I'm going to lie down and I'm going to brace my head without pulling on my neck, I'm going to brace my upper body up high enough so that my stomach is tight. My abdominal muscles are engaged a little bit. From there I'm going to put my feet together, I'm going to point my toes and straighten out my knees and off of that I'm just going to go ahead and lift the feet off the floor. And hold this position, upper body high enough so the stomach is tight, knees are straight, toes are pointed. And holding this for thirty to one minute. Thirty seconds, thirty seconds to one minute will really engage those abdominals. Alright after I've done that, now I'm going to go ahead and get my medicine ball. One exercise that I do is a variation of the jackknife, but using the medicine ball as resistance. And you get to decide for yourself the poundage of the medicine ball. This is a four pound, you can use a eight pound, twelve pounds, six pounds whatever works for you. I'm going to hold it right at my chest I'm going to go ahead and lift my feet up high, toes pointed, making sure that I don't strain my neck. And I'm going to take a deep breath in. I'm going to breathe out. I'm going to lift my shoulder blades off the floor, lift the ball towards the toes and I'm going to hold that for two seconds and then back down. Keep the feet up by the upper body and the ball goes back down. And then I take a deep breath in and breathe out and do the same motion again, repeating that. If you're a novice, beginner exerciser , one set of twelve will do. Intermediate, advanced, two sets of twelve, two sets of twenty as well as much more heavier medicine balls. Depends on you. Depends on what works with you."