Heather: Oh, have I got a killer workout for you today. This focus is going to be on the
core. The only piece of kit you're going to need is one of these, a Swiss Ball. Now we
all know how important core is to be able to make sure you're strong in everyday life,
but also make you efficient in whatever sport it is that you're targeting. Let's get going.
[music] Let's start with Reverse Crunch. For this
one, you want to roll over the top of the ball and then walk your hands out away from
you until it's just your shins that are resting on the ball. You want your hands directly
underneath your shoulders, then to have a straight line that goes all the way from your
head down to your ankles for your starting position. It's very important to keep your
head in line as well, so you're not putting any strain on your neck.
Once you're happy with your starting position, you're going to bring your knees towards your
chest in a crunch style motion. It's all very important about keeping control. You want
to make sure there's no other movement happening. Only bring your knees in as far as you can
still maintain that control, and then extend your legs away, back to the starting position.
That counts as one rep. You want to aim for 10 to start with and try to do three lots
through. Remember that form is more important than the number here. If you finding, you're
starting to round your shoulders, you're neck's getting tired, then cut there, have a rest,
and then come back. [music]
Onto the Russian Twist. For this one, you want to lie back on the ball. Your mid-back
is resting on the ball and your knees are bent. Your knees should be at 90 degrees with
them directly above your ankles. Once you're in that stable position, then raise your hands
up towards the ceiling as though you're pointing to the ceiling above you. You're going to
clasp your hands together. From there, you're then going to draw an arc over to the right.
Keeping your arms straight, keeping your hips facing to the ceiling or the sky, and you're
going to rotate with the shoulders. You'll feel all of your torso, slightly twisting
to the right. Go as far as you can control, that you can make sure your hips are still
level. Then you're going to bring it back to the center and rotate over to the left-hand
side and back to the center that counts as one rep.
Aim to do 10 in total, have a rest, and do it a total of three times. If you want to
make it a little bit harder, then you can simply add a weight into your hands, whether
that's a can of beans or an actual weight, and repeat the movement in the same way. It
will be your shoulders that are moving and rolling across the ball. Just make sure your
hips stay parallel to the ceiling. [music]
For this one, you need to start by lying on your back, holding the ball between your lower
legs. You need to engage your core and make sure your back is nice and flat against the
ground. From there, you're going to bring your legs up towards you. You're basically
crunching your torso towards your legs so that you can meet in the middle, take the
ball into your hands. Then, from this crunched position, you're going to extend, so you extend
your arms over above your head, taking the ball with you, and simultaneously extending
your legs so that you end up in a fully stretched position, ball in hand.
Then you're going to reverse that. You're going to crunch back up, bringing the ball
back to meet your legs that have come in as well. Put the ball between your legs, extend
away so that you're back into that extended position, but the ball is now resting on the
ground in between your ankles. That's one rep. It's a pretty tough exercise, this. Just
start off by doing five at one time, aim for three sets through, but really concentrate
on making sure that you're keeping your back nice and secure against the floor and that
you've got a really strong core engaged. You'll find it hard to do with it, trust me.
[music] This one, I find really tough, but it looks
quite simple. You're going to start by kneeling on the floor in front of your ball. Rest your
forearms and your elbows on the ball. Interlink your fingers in front of you. From there,
you're going to pivot through your knee joints. You're keeping kneeling down the whole way
through. You're simply going to roll the ball away from you, as far as you can manage to
maintain that control. You'll start to find that your core is really working. You might
not get as far away as you thought, but it's all about the control. If you start to wobble
too much or lose that control, then bring the ball back in a nice controlled motion
to your starting point. As it's a tough one, aim for eight reps to
start with and try and go three times three through. You might want to actually kneel
on something soft because it is a bit of pressure going through your knees. It takes a little
bit of time to experiment exactly what starting position you need and where you need to place
your hands on the ball, but you'll soon figure it out. Once you've got the hang of it, aim
for just eight reps to start with because it is a toughie and try and do it three times
through. [music]
Now, for this one, you might find it easier if you can get a wall. You want to put your
feet where the bottom-- where the wall meets the ground, you're going to be lying on the
side of your ball. You want the ball resting between your hips and your shoulders. Your
feet one in front of the other next to the wall. From here, simply place your hands or
rest them very lightly on the side of your head and rotate your body so that you are
at right angles to the ground. If you did have a wall in front of, you'd be parallel
to that. You want to make sure you've got a nice straight line with your torso resting
over that ball. Also a straight line down through the middle of your torso.
Once you've got that starting position, you're simply going to drop your lower side down
as far as you can go. It's keeping your hands-- you'll be dropping your elbow, but keeping
contact with your head as far as you can manage from there. Then you're going to come back
up to the starting position. Now repeat 10 on one side and then swap over. Make sure
that you swap your legs as well. If you've had one foot in front of the other, make sure
the other foot goes in front of the other when you're next to the wall and repeat the
same through again on the next side. [music]
Your core isn't solely the muscles at the front of your body. It's actually the muscles
all the way around your torso, which help control the movement. However, this exercise
is going to predominantly work your hamstrings, that's where you'll feel it, but in order
to do the exercise well, you are going to need to fully engage and work that core too.
Start off by lying on the ground on your back with your legs resting on your ball. Just
your lower legs, your calves basically, resting on the ball. From there, you're going to simply
push your hips up towards the ceiling. You're going into a sort of bridge, but using the
ball as part of your stability. Once you've got there, you're going to keep
your hands on the ground, just to add for the stability for the time being and make
sure you've got a straight line again, going from the ankles, through your hips, to your
shoulders this time. Once you're happy and you're controlled in that starting position,
you're going to pull your heels towards your bottom. All the time, trying to keep your
trunk nice and stable. Bring it in as far as you can. Then you're going to extend your
legs, so you're back to that starting position. It's basically a hamstring curl whilst lying
on your back. Now there's quite a few ways which you can make this harder, but start
off by just trying to concentrate on nailing that. If you can, aim for 10 reps, again do
it three times through. If you're ready to progress, there's two options
here. First off you could take your hands off the ground, off the ground beside you,
and just wrap them over your chest. That way you're going to be reducing your base, so
your stability because you'll be using a lot of your hands to start with if you're in that
position. That will make it a lot harder. You're pivoting purely on your shoulders and
your heels on the ball. Or, you can progress it a step further and
go to single-leg. If you are going to do single-leg, just simply lift one of the legs off the ball,
so it's resting just above. All your weight is then going down through the ball in one
leg. This is when it's key to make sure that your hips stay level. Your hips need to be
pointing to the ceiling or the sky and remain in that same position the whole way through
the movement. It will really, really start to work your core as well as your hamstring.
I will be amazed if, after all of that, your core is not on fire. Well, go and give those
exercises a go and let me know how you feel the burn. Hopefully, you've enjoyed the session
or you've at least enjoyed watching me suffer. If so, give us a Like, and remember, you can
check out GTN on all of our social media channels too.
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