Who would have ever thought that a ball could work such magic and offer so many benefits such as being able to exercise in a fashion that provides challenging your core strength, balance, and having a great time doing it? Exercise balls have become quite popular because of these very reasons. The exercise ball relies on resistance by simply forcing you to use muscles that are rarely used just to maintain your balance. An exercise ball workout brings forth the added challenge of balance while you are doing a workout with bands, dumbbells, or a core workout such as Pilates.
When you exercise on the exercise ball you will find that you must stabilize the core muscles before you can begin to work the extremities like your arms or legs. What this basically means is that whatever exercise you are trying to do you are going to have to engage certain muscles before you begin or you will roll right off the ball. One example of this is with the exercise ball squat, you have to position the ball on the wall and sit on it while leaning your lower back into it. As you bend your knees to a sitting position you’ll feel the ball roll up your spine. If you are not engaging your abdominal muscles you will roll off the side of the ball.
There has been some really positive feedback about the exercise ball because while you are working out the ball itself allows you to either increase or decrease intensity with only slight adjustments in the position of your body. The farther that you walk your body off of the ball the more intense your exercise will become, of course increasing the intensity. The exercise ball also offers a much greater range of motion which increases flexibility and strengthens the muscles. An abdominal curl where you roll your spine back over the ball is a greater range than you would achieve on a flat surface.
Because the exercise obviously rolls, it allows you to roll into different positions much more easily but only to encounter a more challenging transition to another exercise. For instance when doing an exercise ball Pilate’s workout you can transition from a side stretch or oblique lift right into kneeling side kicks on top of the ball working the abductors of the thighs. While you are engaging in an exercise ball Pilate’s routine you will find that you will be much more focused and you will have deeper breathing techniques.
The exercise ball is more than convenient and can be used anywhere, indoors or out. They are made of very durable material and hold over 600 pounds of weight. They do not require much room to use them and you can easily take them with you by simply deflating them and then filling them back up with either a foot or a hand pump. Besides that they are just fun and where there is fun there is usually more motivation.
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