Exercise Ball Side Bend
Trains the Abs, Obliques and Quadratus Lumborum.
- Equipment
- An exercise ball and either a weight plate or a dumbbell
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Lie sideways over an exercise ball with the hip and the side of the waist on the ball, the feet apart and braced against the base of a wall.
- Hold a weight plate or dumbbell against the chest with both hands.
- Let the torso bend sideways over the ball towards the floor.
- Lift the torso back up by bending sideways away from the ball, until the body is in a straight line or slightly past it.
- Lower under control and repeat.
- Finish the set, then turn over and work the other side.
Common mistakes
- Twisting as you rise. The movement is purely sideways; if the chest turns towards the ceiling, the trunk is rotating rather than bending.
- Rising too far. Slightly past straight is the top; bending far the other way loads the spine at the end of its range.
- Feet not braced. Without the wall the ball rolls and the legs spend the set balancing; the feet are set before the first repetition.
- Holding the weight away from the chest. It stays against the chest so the lever is the trunk; a plate held out in front is a different exercise.