Don’t work out, lie down and build muscle instead

Take it easy during your lunch-hour excursion to the temple of fitness with three simple – back-based, ab-sculpting exercises.

Ball crunching: Keep your knees bent and your feet flat and hold that medicine ball just above your head. Now crunch up to bring your shoulder blades off the floor. Hold for a count of two and lower again for 20 reps.

Medicine raise: Hold the ball between your feet and raise it to around 12″  off the ground. Lower it again and repeat 20 times – feel those abs take the strain as you do.

Combine the two: Lie down flat with the ball in your hands. Crunch up and when your feet meet your hands pass the ball over, then perform a controlled lowering with the ball between your ankles. Hold the ball just above the ground then return it to your hands. Count this as one rep then repeat until you fade. After a few weeks raise the weight of the ball, working your way up to a 10kg one.