Exercise Challenge – Medicine Ball Twist

Ab Exercise – Medicine Ball Twist

This is a great exercise for strengthening your abs and specifically targeting your internal and external obliques.

How to do Medicine Ball twists with good technique

Start with your body in a V shape with your chest lifting up towards the ceiling, making sure you don’t round your lower back.

Ab exercise – Medicine Ball Twist

Keeping your back straight and your legs lifted, rotate your torso to one side whilst touching the floor with the medicine ball. Bring the medicine ball back to the centre and then twist to the other side.

Ab Exercise – Medicine Ball Twist

See how many of these you can do with good form before your abs start to fatigue.

Easier and harder Medicine ball twist options

An easier option is to keep the feet on the floor whilst doing this exercise and keeping your knees bent. The next option up is to lift your legs and keep them bent. And then hardest option is to lift your legs as high as you can whilst keeping the legs straight. This does require good hamstring flexibility as without this you may find that your back will start to round. If your hamstrings are tight then its best to keep your legs bent rather than compromising your form and technique.

The heavier the medicine ball the harder the exercise. For beginners I would recommend starting with no weight at all and then progressing to a small 1kg medicine ball and then increasing the weight each week.

I hope you have fun improving your strength with this great ab workout. Aim to increase your reps each time or the weight, one or the other, don’t attempt to increase weight and reps in the same session.

Let me know how you get on and what other exercises you would like to learn about.