If you think that doing core and ab exercises is just for showing off at the beach, think again.  A recent Canadian study of more than 8,000 people over 13 years found that those with the weakest abdominal muscles had a death rate of more than twice that of the people with the strongest midsections.  One of the tools I use to work on my midsection to look great at the beach and live a long healthy life is the medicine ball.

One of our favorite medicine ball ab workouts is the on floor med ball crunch twist.  This is a fantastic workout, one of the problems though is that most people end up doing this exercise too fast so in this article we'll cover how to do it with nice slow, methodical twist with a hold. 

To get started with this exercise you'll want to choose a weight that's best for you.  As far as weights go, for a beginner I recommend starting off with a two to four pound medicine ball, if you're an intermediate and have some core development already I recommend a six to eight pound medicine ball and if you're advanced I recommend a ten to twelve pound medicine ball.

 Once you've selected the medicine ball that's right for you, sit right on your bum on the floor.  Once seated you'll cross one foot over the other and very lightly have the weight of your foot into the floor, you don't want it up on the floor and you don't want to have all your weight pushing down on the floor but you want your heal just barely touching the floor. 

Next you'll want to do what I like to call cinch up your internal weight belt by tightening your core and trying to bring your bellybutton back from your waist line.  To get started with the movement hold the ball right in front of your bellybutton and then turn to the right and hold the ball there for two counts  and then turn to the left and hold for two counts.  As you continue to do that movement focus on keeping the ball right in front of your bellybutton. 

Once you've gone through this movement if you feel that it's too basis there is an advanced technique that you can toss into the mix as well.  For the more advanced technique you'll hold the ball in your arms and extend your arms and legs all the way out until you're parallel with the floor.  In this movement you'll blow air out and bring the medicine ball from above your head to the starting position in front of your bellybutton before moving to the right and left.

Another advanced move I recommend adding to the end of this exercise is a burnout.  Towards the end of your reps when you are about one or two reps away from fail you can forgo the slow movement for a faster all out movement, I usually try to get an additional ten burnout reps at the end of each of my sets.