You need: a stability ball (aka, one of the oversized, heavy duty beach balls at the gym)

Also nice to have: the ability to turn off your brain for the period of the exercise

I’ll explain.

My trainer Tara was careful not to introduce the Triple Threat. She just had me lie on my back and rest my calves on the stability ball. Fairly comfortable in fact – how little did I know at the time what was coming…

With my calves still on the ball, Tara had me raise and lower my hips for 10 repetitions. Straightforward enough. My hips weren’t technically supposed to touch the floor between raises, but I’m pretty sure even at that point, I slipped a couple of times.

From there (with hips still not touching the floor) I was supposed to use my legs to roll the ball back and forth towards me. Hearing this, I laughed a bit to myself (in my head, because actually laughing would have taken critical ab muscles). I’m supposed to do what?

Miraculously, I somehow made it through the rolling exercise, my abs on fire and my brain insisting that enough is enough. (Thankfully?) I have Tara to ignore my brain and tell me the third and final act of Triple Threat.

Without dropping my hips, I was to roll the ball so my feet were flat and from there, pump my hips up and down. By this point my legs joined the screaming of my abs, and it took everything to not collapse onto to the mat.

I have no idea how, but I managed to make it through. At least, I think I made it through. Truth-be-told, I only have hazy memories of the later parts of Triple Threat – too much blood was needed to bolster my exhausted muscles.

So in summary, to do Triple Threat:

1. Turn off brain

2. With your calves on a stability ball, pump hips up & down

3. Roll ball back & forth

4. With your feet flat on the ball, pump hips again

5. Collapse