For some people, ab training is like taking out the garbage – it has a bad habit of being put off until tomorrow. But that’s not surprising, considering how busy most of our lives are these days.

So whether it’s your kids that need your help with their homework, or a project that the boss wants you to finish on your own time, chances are you often have to cut your workout short so that you can get home and get some work done. All too often, ab training is the first thing to get cut in your workout.

But what happens after you finish your evening projects, and the guilt of skipping your abs comes settling into your mind? You kick yourself, don’t you? You think that you should have spent at least five minutes on your abs at the gym. Instead, now you’re going to spend the next 24 or 48 hours shaking your head and wishing you had done your abs at the gym when you had access to the gym’s equipment. After all, you can’t do a great ab workout at home, can you?

Well guess what? Of course you can! All you need are up to 12 minutes a night, two times each week to do all the ab work you need to take your mid-section to the next level. This “abs at home” program doesn’t require anything other than a Stability Ball, which is cheap, yet effective for sharpening up your abs into shredded condition. And not only is this “abs at home” workout great for building cover model abs, it’s also easier on your low-back than doing an endless number of traditional sit-ups.

This short ab workout requires you to perform two Supersets. Perform the exercises in the Superset back to back with no rest between them, and perform each Superset up to three times. Zip through the entire session in as little time as possible, and you’ll feel no guilt for slipping in an extra workout.

You’ll start your “abs at home” training by doing a full body abdominal exercise called Mountain Climbers. These will target your abs from the pelvis towards the rib cage, in addition to challenging your upper body strength. It also prepares the muscles of your entire body for the rest of the exercises to come.

Mountain Climbers are paired in the first Superset with Stability Ball Crunches. Go extra slow as you lower your torso in each repetition, to work your abs extra hard. These two exercises complete your first of two supersets.

In the second Superset, you’ll pair a Stability Ball Rollout with a Side Plank. The Ball Rollout focuses on your abs from the top down, while the Side Plank builds muscle endurance in your abs and oblique muscles.

Do this workout twice per week for 4 weeks before switching up the exercises.

About Craig Ballantyne