Improving Stomach and Core Muscles No 33 - Using a Medicine Ball

Stomach and core muscles are probably one of the most important muscles we have for supporting our martial art training:

1. They are an important part of our body-core maneuverability.

2. A main component as our core stabilizer.

3. Important for protecting our internal organs against body blows.

There are many ways to improve and train our stomach muscles, in the upcoming articles we will go over some of them.

Drill:

Last month we did a very similar exercise… But this time we're going to add a little twist to it.

Lying on our backs on the floor we hold a medicine ball in our hands. We then twist our backs and upper body by taking our legs to one of our sides and laying them on the ground. We then roll back to a sit-up position, untangling the twist in our upper body. Using the motion as if we were a spring, we throw the ball up in the air using the untangling motion to catapult the ball as high as we can. We catch the ball while staying in the sit up position which the ball was thrown at, and then put our legs on the other side twisting it again for another repetition.

Tips:

1. The amount of sets, their duration and the length of time of each set, should be decided upon according to our abilities and endurance level both mentally and physically.

2. It is important to connect the two motions together so that the untwisting motion of the body compliments the vertical throw of the ball up.

3. When catching the ball it is important to tuck in our core muscles to support the back.

4. When we finish the exercise it is very important to stretch our hands and legs, and not only our body core, because they have worked, and thus shortened as well.

Enjoy the Sweat

The Warriors Project