Swiss Ball Jack Knife

The Swiss Ball Jackknife is one of the best ab exercises you can do to strengthen and tone your abs. This is an advanced exercise so if you're a beginner, you may need to work a little more with regular floor exercises to build some strength.

To do this exercise in any of its variations, you will need a Swiss Ball of course. Other than that, prepare for a hard and furious exercise which will have your stomach muscles screaming for mercy.

There are two variations of the Swiss Ball Jackknife that I want to cover in this article. Let's begin with the regular one:

How to Do the Swiss Ball Jackknife Knee Tuck

To do this regular variation of the Jack knife, begin by placing both shins on the swiss ball and both your hands straight on the floor before you. Try to keep both hands a little wider apart than your shoulders. Make sure to maintain a straight line from your head to your toes.

The movement is simple yet challenging: roll the ball toward your upper body with your legs together while curling your abs and bending your knees to your chest.

Try to bring your knees as close to your chest as you can but you don't have to actually touch them to your chest. Then, slowly roll the ball back to the starting position.

At first it will be difficult for you to maintain balance but it will improve as well as the fitness of your abs.

Swiss Ball JackKnife Pike

You can see the basic difference in the picture to your right. Indeed, this isn't an easy exercise to perform. It requires strength and flexibility.

The difference is in the motion. You bring the ball toward you but don't bend your knees. You keep them straight and go into something resembling a hand stand.

Of course, you don't have to get this perfect end position. Even if you achieve a much shorter movement, you will still get an awesome stomach workout from this exercise.

The Jackknife in any variation is an awesome exercise. However, you can do a lot more exercises with a swiss ball. Check out this article: Swiss Ball Ab Workouts for more killer exercises to get your abs firm.

You can do the jackknife at home or at the gym and it can give you a solid workout in 2-3 minutes tops. Again, these are advanced workouts so don't feel bad if you find that you can't do them just yet. It will come.

For more exercises go to Lower tomach toning exercises.

For nutrition tricks to go along with them, go to Boost your Metabolism