3 Ways an Exercise Ball Will Change the Way You Workout for Good
The exercise ball has gained much attention as a useful workout tool for core strengthening and working your lower and upper body. An exercise ball is a great way to transform your body even after an injury to reduce muscles and spinal strain during certain movements.
Exercises for beginners
Exercise ball workouts can be especially tricky since it creates an unstable surface, which forces you to use different muscles to maintain your balance. After becoming comfortable with the ball and workout movements it will help strengthen your core, upper body and lower body; and help you break through the monotonous workout regime and have some fun while you sweat it out in the gym or at home.
There are wide variety of names by which these balls are known for such as a Swiss ball, Yoga balls, Pilates ball, Stability ball, Balance ball, Physio ball just to name a few. Since it has become widely popular, you can easily find them in most sporting good stores.
1. An Exercise ball will make your normal workout regimen more challenging!
Exercise balls are an excellent way to make your normal floor or standing exercises more challenging. It will also make your muscles work harder and become more fatigued. When working your core, these balls involve working your primary muscles such as the rectus abdominis the long sheets of muscles that lie just under the skin which are responsible for the six-pack look. They also target the transversus abdominis, an abdominal muscle essential to maintaining good posture.
Exercise ball workouts target your core and can improve your sense of balance and agility, which can play key role in enhancing your performance in activities such as running, tennis, dancing and yoga.
2. Lower body workouts
You can add an interesting twist on many traditional lower-body strength-training moves with the help of exercise balls. While you are doing squats, you can place yoga ball between your lower back and the wall and then squat as you would normally. You can also place top of your back foot on a stability ball during lunges. This will put great demand on your core, hamstrings, quadriceps and glutes.
3. Upper body workouts
You can use exercise ball workouts to get every muscles group in your upper body working extra hard. It can help you to turn your traditional push-ups into more challenging move like the stability push up which will take this bodyweight move to the next level.
The best way you can do this is by placing your hands in a push-up position or on your forearms in plank pose while placing the tops of your feet on the top of the ball. This will create more of an incline, which will force your muscles to work a bit harder to keep you stable.