Fitness
Four at-home ab exercises from a personal trainer to fire up your core
THAT dusty old exercise ball that’s been lingering around your living room floor or in the corner of your gym is actually a pretty useful piece of kit.
In fact, if it’s been a while since you used it, aside from as a spare seat when needed, it’s time to put it to good use.
6
6
Also known as Swiss balls, physio balls or stability balls, they can put your balance to the test.
And when used correctly, they can help fire up your core muscles.
Fancy working your abs using just a stability ball?
Chloe Thomas, a personal trainer, women’s health and mindset coach, and founder of online coaching platform Chloe Inspires, has shared four of her favourite core exercises which can be done at home or in the gym using just an exercise ball.
CHECK OUT MORE AB WORKOUTS
You’ll need to engage your core throughout each of the exercises to really reap the full benefits of these moves.
Not sure how to do this?
Firstly, exhale and relax your entire belly area.
Then, slowly inhale and pull your belly button towards your spine, feeling your stomach muscles tighten.
Essentially, if someone was about to punch your stomach, you’d suddenly engage your core; that’s the feeling you’re going for.
Before you start your stability ball ab workout, Chloe recommends doing a five-minute warm up, to help prevent you getting injured.
“Do each exercise for 30 seconds and then rest for 20 seconds and move to the next exercise,” says Chloe.
“Aim to do three to four rounds of the whole circuit.
“I would recommend doing this workout three times a week maximum as you need to let the muscles rest, recover and grow.
“Each time you workout aim to increase time or reps on each exercise so you are progressively overloading.”
Chloe does stress, however, that this workout will not get rid of belly fat.
“No workout alone can do that; that comes from diet,” she adds.
“But this workout will build ab muscles, so when you lose belly fat, you have a toned and defined stomach.”
If you really want to feel the ab burn, avoid resting between each exercise, and instead, go straight from one move into the next.
Now, grab your ball, and get going.
1. Plank
6
For this exercise, kneel in front of your ball, with your shins up against it.
Then, place your hands on the ground, making sure your arms are straight from your shoulders down to your wrists.
Now, push yourself up so that the tops of your feet are on the ball and your body is in a straight line.
Keep your core tight and make sure your shoulders stay directly above your wrists. Look slightly forward.
“Make sure your hips do not dip and do not over-arch your back,” advises Chloe.
2. Plank to crunch
6
Get back into the plank position you were in for the first exercise with the tops of your feet on the ball and hands on the floor, directly under your shoulders.
Next, engage your core and bring your feet in, moving the ball closer to your body and crunching your feet to your chest.
“Keep your core tight and bring your feet in as far as you can, then extend back out,” adds Chloe.
3. Ball pass
6
Get out of your plank position for this exercise.
Lie on the ground or on a mat and bring your feet up into the air.
As you do this, make sure your back is engaged with the mat and avoid overextending your back.
Next, place the ball between your feet, then extend your legs out and reach your arms out straight over your head.
Crunch your legs in and then pass the ball from your feet to your hands.
Then, extend the ball over your head with your arms and lengthen your legs and feet back out.
Keep repeating this, swapping the ball between your feet and your hands.
Move slowly through the exercise, keeping your core tight and making sure you don’t arch your back.
4. Ball crunch
6
Lie on your mat again or the floor and bring your feet up into the air.
Place the ball between your feet before straightening your legs upwards.
Place your arms straight above your head and crunch up to the ball.
Tap it lightly. Then, lower yourself down and repeat.
Why can’t I see my abs?
IF you can’t see your abs muscles, it’s probably because there’s a layer of fat lying on top of them.
But, there are things you can do to burn fat.
Firstly, personal trainer Chloe Thomas suggests putting yourself into a calorie deficit.
“To do this you would need to start eating slightly less than you are burning and move your body more,” she says.
“Calorie intake depends on height, weight, age, activity levels, muscle mass and gender – so every person will need a different amount of calories to lose body fat.
“To speed up results I would also recommend cutting out alcohol as this slow results and can contribute to belly fat.”
Chloe also recommends sticking mainly to whole foods and foods that are minimally processed.
“The best foods for reducing belly fat are lean proteins like chicken, fish, and eggs, which support muscle building and metabolism,” she adds.
“You also want to eat fibre-rich whole grains, vegetables and fruits.
“Aim to have healthy fats like avocados, nuts, some fish and olive oil which help to regulate your blood sugars and reduce cravings.”
Manage your stress levels too.
“Cortisol is a hormone that is released when we are stressed and high cortisol can lead to increased belly fat,” she says.
Our team decided the TRX Home 2 System is the best multipurpose piece of compact home gym equipment you can invest in, thanks to its lightweight and multipurpose functions. I love that it supports both resistance training and cardio workouts while taking up zero surface area of my shoebox apartment.
All you do is hook the TRX Home 2 System onto the back of a door, beam, or pole with the included anchors. The hooks and suspension straps stay in place (which is essential for safety) while executing explosive movements like lunges and squats. In my apartment, I attached it to the back of my door and was able to install it properly on my first attempt. It’s never budged, no matter how much weight I put on it.
After using it a dozen times, I never lost balance or felt at risk of injury. It may look flimsy, but I attest it’s strong and mighty. For further stability, the straps feature grippy handles, which Sheridan recommends.
I know this product is top-notch because it has superior durability to withstand high-resistance, low-impact workouts. With weekly use, the anchors are not worn out and still feel good as new—you get what you pay for! Plus, the TRX Home 2 System was specifically designed by a Navy Seal over 20 years ago and has proven its effectiveness.
As a runner, it’s excellent for cross-training muscles I wouldn’t otherwise use, and stretching out my tired limbs. I plan on also using it on vacation for quick hotel room workouts because I need my daily endorphins.
Read More: Best Portable Home Gyms
In addition to the psychological impact, there are physical risks associated with following online fitness trends.
The experts cautioned that some activities may not be suitable for all individuals, and may even result in over-exertion or injury for some people.
This is often due to their high intensity and specificity in the muscle groups trained.
Ms Nur Amelina Azlan, a physiotherapist at Heal360 Physioclinic, said: “For example, pilates is very postural, very focused on the core muscles, whereas something like your spin class is more cardiovascular.
“But what we need is both elements together, not just one over the other.”
MAKING FITNESS “FIT” YOU
So, if what works for other people may not be the best for different people with different needs, how does one find what works for oneself?
Mr Martin John, clinical director at Orchard Health Clinic, which offers physiotherapy among other services, said that the first step is to be honest about your starting point.
“How is your energy? How is your sleep? How stressed are you? How much do you sit? How well do you move?
“Those are important questions because exercise should match the person, not the trend.”
Most people wouldn’t mind being a little bit fitter. But the fittest? That seems unreachable. However, many argue that all-conquering CrossFit athlete Tia-Clair Toomey is, by objective measures, the fittest woman in history.
Toomey, who is an ambassador for the fitness app Pliability, has won the CrossFit Games – an annual competition to find the fittest man and woman on earth – an unrivalled six times on the trot. In 2023, she paused to have her first child, then returned in 2024 and won the competition two more times.
In the midst of her winning streak, the 32-year-old also represented Australia in weightlifting at the 2016 Rio Olympics, won gold in the same event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, qualified for the 2022 Winter Olympics in the two-woman bobsled and completed a Hyrox doubles race in a lightning-fast 54 minutes 24 seconds.
In short: Toomey is incredibly fit. The average person might not be able to emulate her superior fitness levels, and most don’t want to – they simply want to be fit and healthy enough to thrive in everyday life. You can, however, benefit from her insights about how to approach exercise.
Read more: Do these three things each week to be fitter than most Brits
1. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good
“You can’t be perfect at everything all the time,” says Toomey. “Trying to juggle too many things at once is where many people come unstuck, because you’re stretching yourself too thin. So it’s important to find balance.”
The aim is not to do everything immaculately, but to identify the things that are truly valuable to you – these might be your workouts, work or supporting your family – and take pride in throwing the (cluttered) kitchen sink at them.
“Even if it’s just a simple workout, you can feel really fulfilled at the end of the day knowing you gave it your best,” Toomey says. “I think a workout is a perfect place to demonstrate this.”
Read more: Walking experts reveal the number of daily steps you need to boost health – and it’s not 10,000
2. Small changes make a big difference
Most people set themselves lofty fitness (and life) goals, then fall short of them. Just look at how many New Year’s resolutions have been discarded by the time February rolls around. Toomey suggests a more manageable approach.
“If you can get 1 per cent better every day, you can’t ask for any more than that,” she says. “It’s when you create excuses, stop challenging yourself and give up on pursuing your chosen goal that you stop progressing and plateau.”
She recommends making small tweaks to improve how you feel each day, rather than obsessing over a daunting target.
For example, you could head to bed 15 minutes earlier and keep your phone out of the bedroom, drink an extra glass of water, go for a walk after dinner or eat an extra portion of fruits and vegetables. Small changes soon accumulate to make a big difference over time.
“It takes a lot of pressure off people when they break their goals down like that,” Toomey says.
Read more: Study reveals the small changes to your diet, sleep and exercise that can add years to your life
3. Be open-minded
A lot of people use the phrase “exercise isn’t for me”. This is likely linked to a less-than-pleasant experience at some point in their past.
But exercise is a very broad umbrella, and Toomey urges people to remain open-minded when approaching it. This is something she learned firsthand.
“I enjoyed my first CrossFit session, but I didn’t really enjoy the coach, so I opted not to go back for two months,” she says. “Who knows where I would be now if I never went back because of that one interaction.”
Toomey ended up trying a different gym and finding a coach who was more passionate and encouraging. “Then I was hooked and fully committed,” she says.
For the everyday exerciser, this could mean changing the variables to make your workouts more fun. For example, if you don’t like how running feels, you could swap to a lower-impact activity like swimming or cycling. Or if you find solo strength training sessions boring, you might join an exercise class.
There is no need to suffer through a certain type of exercise just because someone told you it’s the best. Take a playful approach to your workouts and continue to experiment until you find something you enjoy. Because if your exercise plans are fun, you are far more likely to stick to them.
Read more: The easiest way to strengthen your entire body, according to this expert coach
4. Put your ego aside
If you have ever watched Toomey compete, it’s hard to imagine her struggling with anything exercise-related. But, she says, when she first started CrossFit training she found it difficult to hold a barbell overhead in a stable position.
This was exposed in a CrossFit workout named “Nancy” – five rounds of a 400-metre run and 15 overhead squats (squatting while holding a 30kg barbell overhead).
“I was a runner prior to CrossFit, so I would race ahead during the 400m runs, but then the overhead squats were very challenging for me,” Toomey says.
To learn the correct technique, she started by scaling back the overhead squats, using an empty barbell rather than one loaded up with weight. Then, as she improved, she gradually increased the load on the bar.
“It’s all about building confidence,” Toomey says. “Everyone wants to go from zero to 100, but you need to put your ego aside, take your time and put the work in to actually learn a movement. That is how people evolve.”
If Toomey is willing to scale back exercises to learn them properly, the rest of us should be too. That might mean starting with goblet squats rather than barbell squats, wall press-ups rather than full press-ups, or walking rather than running.
There are exercise options to suit all fitness levels – you just have to find the appropriate ones for you and gradually progress them over time.
Read more: Sitting all day wreaks havoc on your hips and spine – here’s how to stop that from happening
5. Variety is the spice of life
What is the one exercise Toomey wishes more people would do? She struggles to pick just one before prescribing variety.
“I just love seeing people active,” she says. “But constantly doing one thing will have a lot of impact on the body. I think it’s really important to have a variety of exercises. That way you’re constantly working different muscles, building broad fitness and stimulating the mind in different ways.”
This is good advice for any exerciser. The body works on a rough use-it-or-lose-it basis, so if you don’t use a joint or muscle to its full potential, it can weaken and tighten over time. Greasing the groove on a wide range of movement patterns is the best way to prevent this and stay mobile for decades to come.
Read more: After 50 you need to train smarter – the eight rules for strength training in midlife, according to experts
6. Commit to a plan
A one-off workout cannot transform your fitness, but a progressive exercise plan can. This is why Toomey recommends finding a structured programme to follow over a longer time period than just a single session.
“That is going to help you stay motivated, particularly if it’s linked to some sort of sports or fitness goal like your first 10K, triathlon or pull-up,” she says.
“It gives you something to aim for. Otherwise people think, ‘Oh, I’m just going to keep doing this forever,’ and it can feel quite overwhelming. Following a programme helps you build healthy habits that you integrate into your daily routine and actually stick to.”
Read more: I specialise in coaching people aged 40-plus – do these six things for immediate results
7. Look after yourself
Muscle isn’t built in the gym. What you do during your workouts triggers myriad positive physiological changes, but the actual adaptations happen while you are recovering.
For this reason, Toomey places a great emphasis on sleep and nutrition, prioritising quality fuel and recovery between her training sessions.
As part of this, she regularly uses a sauna, breathwork and completes a stretching and mobility protocol via the Pliability stretching app shortly after waking each day.
“I tend to wake up feeling a bit stiff and sore from the previous day,” she says. “But I want to walk into the gym feeling strong and confident. That stretching session acts as a form of meditation as well, helping with both mobility and mental clarity.”
Read more: Swap the gym for this trainer’s six-move kettlebell workout to build full-body strength at home
-
World12 seconds ago
FIFA says match tempo, and limiting time-wasting, will be point of emphasis at World Cup
-
News7 minutes agoVideo: Another Night of Violent Protests Outside a Newark ICE Detention Center
-
Lifestyle40 minutes agoTrump floats MAGA rally instead of concert after musicians drop out of Freedom 250
-
Technology52 minutes agoAMD’s new pitch: our old tech is so good you should just keep using it
-
World55 minutes agoHezbollah’s ‘game changing’ night-hunting weapon punches through Israel’s defenses: expert
-
Politics1 hour agoHasan Piker says UK has barred him, trashes ‘unbelievable…power’ of pro-Israel groups
-
Health1 hour agoQuitting smoking could offer a major benefit beyond heart and lung health, study finds
-
Sports1 hour agoRoman Reigns domesticates Jacob Fatu to retain World Heavyweight Championship at WWE Clash in Italy
