Australian snowboarder Scotty James has shown off his incredible core strength with a workout that sees him balancing on an exercise ball whilst holding a weight on one side.
The two-time Olympic medal winner has taken to Instagram to share a workout of seriously brutal proportions. The snowboard halfpipe rider is no stranger to blasting his core muscles, but his latest really does kick things up a notch.
Scotty’s workout (which you can watch below) sees him balancing on an exercise ball whilst passing a kettlebell from side to side. There are few things here that make Scotty’s “balancing drill,” as he puts it, incredibly impressive.
WATCH: Australian snowboarder Scotty James completes a seriously impressive balancing workout
Firstly, by balancing on an exercise ball he immediately reduces his stability. Some gym-goers may use an exercise ball to lay down on to perform a dumbbell chest press or some dumbbell rotations. But with these exercises, you would still have some stability by way of your feet touching the floor. To stand on an exercise ball and maintain your balance, however, is a whole new level of difficulty.
In order to remain standing, Scotty will be having to recruit virtually every muscle in his core, along with his leg muscles and glutes, to make sure his body remains as rigid as possible. Being a world champion snowboarder, he will of course have a better understanding of where his centre of gravity lies compared to the average Joe, but that still wouldn’t make this exercise a walk in the park.
To increase the difficulty, Scotty passes a kettlebell from hand to hand, before moving it around his body. It’s not clear exactly what weight his kettlebell is from the video, but we’d say it’s at least 12kg, if not more.
In moving the kettlebell from hand to hand, Scotty will naturally be placing more weight on one side of his body. So, in order to remain standing on the exercise ball and to keep his torso upright, he’ll have to use his oblique muscles on the opposite side of the body to the one holding the kettlebell.
The around-the-world movement will also want to encourage his body to lean in the direction of the kettlebell. So, again, to remain upright and balanced on the exercise ball, his entire core will need to be engaged to keep it rigid and stable.
Oh, and just to show off, Scotty performs a few squats, without the kettlebell, to finish the workout. We can’t even begin to describe just how difficult this will be. When we say “don’t try this at home”, or at the very least, don’t try this without the guidance of a health and fitness professional, we mean it.
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