Question: I’ve heard the best abdominal exercise is the Swiss Ball crunch. Is it better than doing crunches with an ab roller or on the floor? I really want to have visible abs.

Eugene says: In short, yes. But let’s talk about a few things first before you run out and start bouncing away on one of those physical-therapy-device-turned-gym-toys.

Abdominal Exercise Primer

First, understand that doing a lot of ab work in order to develop a shredded six pack is about as effective as using a Bic lighter to cook your salmon steak. To properly develop visible abdominal muscles, two things are necessary:

1) Body fat reduction over the abdominal area ie. lose 10 pounds.  This is primarily accomplished through the proper applications of dietary principles. BTW, if you’re serious about losing that fat from your abdominal area, our Man on a Mission is your ace in the hole, if I do say so myself.

2) Some exercise to develop abdominal strength.

Swiss ball crunch Photo Credit © Richard Giles

Diet is More Important Than Swiss Ball Crunches For Visible Abs

Diet is so much more important in this process that it’s almost ridiculous to spend time doing ab work when you’ve got a nice, thick layer of protective adiposity blanketing your midsection (you’d be much better off spending that time doing exercises that rev up your metabolism, like multi-joint movements such as squats, or performing high intensity intervals).

In fact, it’s possible to develop a six pack without a single rep of direct ab work if you get your body fat low enough and you strength train (there is significant recruitment of the ab muscles on big, multi-joint movements like pulldowns, chinups, squats, deadlifts, etc., so they get a lot of indirect work when you perform these exercises).

As Mike pointed out in a previous Q and A, spot reduction of the fat overlying your ab muscles by selectively doing exercises for just that area is not possible. Nor is exercising your butt off without making concomitant changes in diet useful for developing killer abs.

You’ve Got To Put The Whole Shebang Together…

Now, let me get off my soapbox…

Swiss ball crunches more deeply stimulate the ab muscles because you work them through a greater range of motion and because the ab muscles encounter greater resistance (from your body weight) when you’re lying on a Swiss ball.

Since greater resistance = more results (remember your Weight Training 101?), the greater stimulus from the Swiss ball crunches will give you more bang for your fat burning workout buck than its floor-based counterparts (ab rollers included).

So grab yourself a ball and crunch away.  But do yourself a favor – stay away from those high calorie foods and drink your water, ok?