Exercise Ball Pull-In
Trains the Abs.
- Equipment
- An exercise ball
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Take a push-up position with your shins or the tops of your feet resting on an exercise ball.
- Set your hands under your shoulders and your body in one line from heels to head.
- Brace your stomach hard.
- Draw your knees toward your chest, rolling the ball forward beneath you.
- Let the hips rise as the knees come in — that is the abdominal half.
- Roll the ball back out under control until the body is in one line again.
Common mistakes
- Letting the hips sag on the way out. The body holds one line at full extension, and the hips dropping is the trunk giving up at exactly the hardest point.
- Pulling with the hip flexors and never lifting the hips. Knees to chest with the hips flat is hip flexion; the pelvis curling upward is what brings the abdominals in.
- Rolling out further than you can return from. The far position is where bodyweight is longest through the trunk, and there is nothing to catch you.
- Letting the shoulders drift behind the hands. Stacked shoulders are what make the position holdable for the length of a set.