If you haven’t bought a stability ball for your home gym yet you need to. Adding stability ball training to your exercise routines is one of the smartest things you can do.
Everybody from physical therapists to exercise coaches rave about them. Stability balls are not a fad that will fade away like so many “As Seen On TV” exercise gadgets. They are here to stay and for good reason.
What is a Stability Ball?
A stability ball is an inflatable rubber ball made of soft elastic PVC. They are inflated with air to a diameter of approximately 14 to 36 inches. The larger ones resemble a beach ball but that’s about the only similarity you’ll find between them.
I happen to use the term “stability ball” when talking about this ball but there are many other names it goes by:
abs ball, balance ball, body ball, exercise ball, fitness ball, gym ball, physioball, pilates ball, Pezzi ball, Pezzi Gymnastikball, sports ball, Swiss ball, therapy ball, workout ball, or Yoga ball
Don’t confuse stability ball with medicine ball. A medicine ball is much smaller and heavier than a stability ball.
A Brief History of the Stability Ball
1. Designed in Italy in the 1960′s by Aquilino Cosani, a plastics engineer. The ball was called a Gymnastik and originally sold as a toy to children.
2. European physical therapists repurposed the ball from a toy to a therapy tool to aid in rehabilitation.
3. American physical therapists discovered the benefits of the balls while visiting physical therapy clinics in Switzerland. They brought their new-found knowledge home and dubbed the balls “Swiss Balls”.
4. In the 1990′s the American fitness industry heard about the physical therapy benefits of stability balls and repurposed the balls to be used in all manner of fitness and strength training routines.
5. Today everybody and his brother sells stability balls, books and training dvd’s.
Get the Correct Size Stability Ball
The correct size ball is determined by your height. Here’s a helpful exercise ball size guide to help you figure out which ball will work best for you.
If you have family members of varying heights who want to do stability ball workouts then you will have to purchase more than one ball. A ball that is too small or too large makes exercising awkward and at times dangerous.
7 Benefits of Stability Ball Training
The benefits of Swiss ball training could fill a book. I’ll simply highlight a few of the one’s I’ve come across.
- Improves core strength: The hot topic these days is core strength. Nothing enhances core strength faster or better than stability balls.
- Improves balance: Any exercise you perform on a balance ball requires the use of more muscles to maintain balance. This is especially good for the elderly who tend to lose their balancing skills over the years.
- Improves coordination: It takes more coordination to do dumbbell presses on a stability ball than on a flat bench.
- Improves exercise comfort: Fitness balls are more comfortable than exercising on the flat floor.
- Enhances your exercises: Stability balls produce instability which doubles the benefits of your workout because of all the balancing muscles than are activated.
- Improves workout fun: Because of its bounciness it makes exercising more fun.
- Flat bench substitute? If you lack a flat bench for working out on a stability ball works extremely well as an inexpensive substitute.
Conclusion
As I mentioned in my article about “Home Fitness Exercise Equipment” a stability ball is a must-have piece of home gym equipment.
Whether your fitness goals are modest, to get a little stronger and more toned up, or if your goal is to get massively muscular and as strong as Hercules, adding stability ball training to your home gym workout routines is a no brainer.
Click on the following link for a comprehensive full-body gym ball exercise list.
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