Exercise balls are fabulous tools for tightening and strengthening your abdominal muscles.

While you will need to combine your exercise ball workout for abs with cardiovascular exercise for a complete and effective workout regimen, your core muscles – including your abs – can be given a ‘bootcamp’ workout with an exercise ball.

Following are some of the most effective exercise ball exercises which target your abs:

Standard Ab Crunch

Rest the upper half of your body on an exercise ball. Tighten your entire core and place your hands lightly behind your head. Crunch your abs while looking forward and keeping your neck relaxed. ONLY your ab muscles should be contracting. You will notice very quickly that you are using your entire body core for this exercise, which is why it is so effective. You can even work at focusing on particular stomach muscles (obliques, for instance) while you are crunching. Even your legs and buttocks will experience toning and strengthening as they help to hold your body stable.

BONUS: Add small hand weights to this exercise as you gain strength.

Balancing Ab Lift

Rest your upper body on the floor, from your head to your shoulder blades. Begin by balancing your feet on an exercise ball (you may find this easier with bare feet). Once you have balanced your body, tighten your abs and buttocks and lift them off the floor. The goal is to lift them parallel to the rest of your body so that you are all in one line. This exercise is terrific for your legs and buttocks as well. As with the first exercise ball ab exercise, ensure your neck and shoulders are relaxed and it is your core doing the contracting.

BONUS: When you can do this exercise in a well-balanced manner, try lifting one leg at a time for en even tougher – and more effective – workout.

THE Workout

**WARNING** NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!

This book contains the toughest exercise ball workout we’ve ever seen! It was designed by the original creator of workout routines for ‘The Biggest Loser’ show, and the author – New York exercise guru David Kirsch – uses it to train movie stars and celebrities for the red carpet (like Heidi Klum and Anne Hathaway!).

Think you’ve got what it takes? Miraculously, you can lose belly fat and tighten up in ONLY TWO WEEKS, but it takes discipline…