You may have bought an exercise ball at some point, and now it rolls around the house or is hidden in a closet. You may have purchased it because a physical therapist recommended it for a rehab program or to use as an office chair (if you remember that craze 20 years ago). Whatever the reason, you bought this fantastic, portable, and very affordable piece of home or office equipment that now collects dust. While doing research for this blog post, I found a video (OMG) that was produced a long time ago, and you’ll see the link in the post. How to make the most of owning an exercise ball.
Find Balance With your Exercise Ball
How about getting the exercise ball back out into the open? The exercise ball is an amazing tool to challenge your balance (who doesn’t need more of that), increase core strength, and improve flexibility. Let me show you how you can make the most of owning an exercise ball so you never want to be without it again.
How To Use The Exercise Ball
There are different ball sizes for different bodies. The general guidelines for sizing are:
Exercise ball diameter Person’s height
55 cm 5’1″– 5’8”
65 cm 5’9″– 6’2″
75 cm 6’3″– 6’7″
85 cm 6’8″ and taller
Here is another way to figure out if you have the right ball size: Sit on your ball and see if your knees and hips are at a 90-degree angle to each other. If you are at a lower angle than that inflate the ball, if you’re at a higher angle then let some air out. If your ball is softer, as a result, it’s okay, but it will make some exercises a bit harder.
Let’s Put The Ball Into Action
You may have seen some of my videos on my social media where I use the exercise ball. Because of its instability, the exercise ball exercises can be quite challenging at times, but once you learn how to use it correctly, it can be a great addition to your workouts.
Here are some of my favorite ball exercises:
- Kneeling Rollout
- Pilates Roll over
- Tricep Dips
- Push-ups with feet on the ball
- Bridge
- Bridge with ball roll in
Benefits Of Using The Exercise Ball
I love using the exercise ball, and about 16 years ago, I designed “The Pilates on Resist-A-Ball program.” Take a peek at me here (this footage was shot in 2002). The exercise ball can offer some great benefits, including:
- Improves balance and overall muscle tone. You’ll work muscles you never knew you had or challenge them differently.
- Increase core strength in every exercise. The instability of the ball requires your lower abdominal muscles to engage to keep your balance.
- Progressively increase or decrease the intensity of an exercise. By making slight body adjustments on the exercise ball, you adjust the workout to anybody’s fitness level.
- Increases flexibility. The exercise ball can help you stretch further and deeper or assist in stretches you can’t do on the floor.
Adding the exercise ball to your workout routine will help you stay excited about exercise, break the routine, and be a lot of fun.
Check out some of our training programs where we’ll use the stability ball for sure