Hey guys… I wanted to show you a really cool exercise for building chest strength, shoulder stability, and core endurance and strength. This is a really great compound exercise! If you see someone else doing it, the exercise may not look hard, but trust me, when you do it, you’ll see how difficult it is… And one of the best parts about this exercise is the fact that you can tailor it to your level. I’ll explain the exercise here, but please watch the video below…

Exercise Explanation

You’re going to need one of these Swiss balls and you’re just going to start in a push up position. Obviously, you can start on your knees or you can start up on your feet. In the video, I do the exercise with my feet on the ground, but you can easily do this on your knees if you prefer.

You’re going to do a few push ups. In the beginning, the ball is going to be really shaky. Not only does it really work the chest, but it also works the shoulder stabilizers. You will immediately feel your muscles working very hard to keep you balanced on the ball, just while holding the upper pushup position.

Also, while you’re still in the pushup position, make sure your back and butt are in line that they’re not sagging or up in the air too high. Just keep a nice straight line. You can do five to ten, whatever you feel comfortable doing.

Again, you can do it on your knees. That’s fine too. After you’ve done about five to ten pushups, what I want you to do is slowly roll the ball out. So, after you do five to ten, you’re just going to roll the ball out a little bit and you’re going to feel an intense core strengthener.

It’s hard to explain until you do it and feel it in your core. It is significantly harder than it looks, so go slowly and safely.

The other reason you want to go slowly is so that you don’t overextend yourself and fall. Once you’re in a good, extended position, again, keeping your back and butt in a straight line…  hold that for five to 10 seconds and then come back to pushup position.

Now, go ahead and do another 5-10 pushups on the ball.

So, what I typically do is about five pushups and then a hold for 5 seconds. You can do ten push ups and a hold for 10 seconds. Do that about three to five times and then rest.

The rolling out of the ball is such an intense core strengthener and by holding that position you’re really building up core endurance, which is absolutely critical for protecting you from a low back injury.

So give this exercise a shot. It’s a great one to throw into your workout routine. I hope you love it as much as I do.