Posts Tagged ‘Exercise Ball Workout’
Exercise Ball Workouts and Pilates
JC Knudson asked:
The exercise ball is a lightweight versatile piece of equipment that is great for strengthening the core muscles. Pilates is a method that is based on nine principles. There is control in which you use the combination of mind and body for coordination. This takes concentration, another principle used in the pilates method to focus on what your body is doing. The goal is for postural alignment, being aware of the position of your body parts for the proper alignment.
To be able to properly do these three principles you need to use your core. In pilates centering is another principle that is used, this is focusing on using your core muscles. To help in doing this proper breathing is used. Breathing is an important part in the pilates method, taking a deep breath into the back of the rib cage helps to replenish the body, and adjust your postural alignment. The breathing also helps to begin each movement.
The other four principles are the flow and precision of each movement, building up stamina to increase intensity, and relaxation. Trying to put all these principles together does take time, and can sometimes feel overwhelming. An exercise ball is an inexpensive tool that can help in bringing all these principles together. When you think about it you have to use three of the basic principles, concentration, centering, and coordination just to be able to sit on the ball and keep it from moving.
If you are advanced in pilates and have built up stamina to increase intensity you can incorporate a pilates circle into your exercise ball workout. No matter what your level of knowledge or physical fitness is you can easily find a workout using an exercise ball and pilates that suits you. You can find free workouts listed on the internet and a variety of DVD’s.

I had to post my praises on the stability ball exercises. I have not been able to do my weightlifting like I would like due to some bulging disc. Read more…
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Exercise Ball Size
Exercise Ball (Stability Ball) Guide
Does Size Matter? Guide to Picking the Right Stability Ball
The Stability Ball, or Exercise Ball, is a fairly new addition to fitness equipment that has only been around for a few years now. The idea is that sitting, kneeling, or just bracing yourself on an unstable surface, activates more core muscle recruitment. It is a great piece of equipement that really makes the midsection work to keep you balanced on the ball. But there are so many different sizes out there. You just need to find the size that is right for you.
A good basic guideline is that you should pick a ball that when inflated, your knees make a 90 degree angle when sitting on the ball. It should be mentioned that the more air in the ball, the difficult the exercise will be. But for a beginner, if you are under 5′5 you would work best with a 55″ ball. If you are over 5′5, you would get the most out of a 65″ ball.
Remember that anything you do with your regular workout, can be done with a stability ball. The only difference is that your abs will need to focus more on keeping your body from falling over. The most common exercise for an exercise ball is the exercise ball crunch. There are many different ways to do this exercise to increase the tension on the abs. One is, as stated above, inflating the ball more; and another is that as you lay on the ball, the farther apart you spread you legs, the less tension is on the abs and more on the legs stabilizing the body. The closer your feet are to each other, the more stabilizer muscles you use in your midsection and less on the legs.
Remember: under 5′5 uses a 55″, over 5′5 uses 65″. Your legs should make very close to a 90 degree angle when sitting on the ball. And proper form is always key.
Stout | http://www.gymmonsters.com – Home for your fitness, training, dieting and nutrition needs. Updated daily.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Mealer

Exercise Ball Size
| While doing this, bend your knees at a 90-degrees angle, and your thighs shoud be level with the floor. Find out your height and check which size you should try first. This simple chart will help you… Read more… |
| By calculating the length of your arms from your fingertips to the shoulder, we can also determine the right exercise ball size. Since the length of your leg may vary from that of other people,… Read more… |
Turbo Jam With a Twist: Chalene Johnson’s Get On The Ball
Turbo Jam is becoming more and more popular as people lookf for new and exciting workouts. Turbo Jam is designed so that you slim your body in all the right places while getting toned. Best of all, Turbo Jam is fun with the energetic music and the fun dance moves. If you find that you are wanting something just a little more challenging or you want to mix up your workout program, then try adding an exercise ball into your workout, as Chalene did in her program Get On The Ball.
It has been proven that adding weight in the form of an exercise ball can help rev up your body’s metabolism even more than a normal workout with no weights. Also, adding the instability of working out on an exercise ball, makes your core muscles, which includes your abdominal muscles, work much harder to keep your balance. Using an exercise ball can take your workouts to a new level.
In Chalene Johnson’s Get On The Ball, Chalene uses an exercise ball, which she calls a Turbo Ball, to get maximum results from the Turbo Jam workout. Just like other Turbo Jam workouts, Get On The Ball targets the abs and other core muscles. Although the workout is geared towards those areas, Chalene does not forget about slimming the whole body. The moves in Get On The Ball will have your muscles burning the next day.
The Get On The Ball workout program comes with two workout DVDs. One is called Total Body Blast, which targets your whole body with intervals of cardio and sculpting routines. The other workout is called Kickin Core. This workout specifically focuses on targeting all of the muscles of the stomach. Chalene Johnson designed both workouts to be fun, yet challenging. In both of the workouts, the regular Turbo Jam moves, such as zig zag, the wheel and plenty of kicks and punches are performed with the exercise ball to add that degree of difficulty to further push the muscles into a higher calorie burning mode.
The moves of Chalene Johnson’s Get On The Ball are not complicated. She keeps things rather simple so that almost everybody can catch onto the moves right away. The best part about Get On The Ball is that just like Turbo Jam it is fun and exciting. There is fun dance music that the workout is choreographed too and Chalene, as usual, is energetic and keeps the workout fun as well.
Making your workouts more challenging can help you in plenty of ways. If you have reached a weight loss plateau, this can easily spark your metabolism and help you start losing weight again. If you have just grown in your physical fitness and need something more challenging to help you want to workout still, adding the exercise ball to your workout can achieve this. With Chalene Johnson’s Get On The Ball, you are able to challenge your body, break through fitness barriers, and best of all, have fun.
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Exercise Ball Workout
An Exercise Ball Workout has many Benefits
Take a look at the many benefits you receive from an exercise ball workout designed to challenge your core strength, balance, and to have fun.
1. Balance – An exercise ball workout incorporates the added challenge of balance while you are doing a workout with bands, dumbbells, or a core workout such as Pilates.
2. Core Strength – Each exercise you do in your exercise ball core workout incorporates having to stabilize the core before you can begin to work the extremities like your arms or legs.
For instance, if you are trying to perform a push up using the exercise ball as you walk out into position you need to make sure the abdominals are engaged or you will roll right off the ball.
An exercise ball squat is a great way to strengthen your legs. Position the ball on the wall and lean 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.
3. Progressive Exercises – The dynamic nature of your workout on the exercise ball allows you to progressively increase or decrease the intensity of the exercises by making slight adjustments in your body position.
As you walk your upper body farther out off the ball the more weight you will be pushing and the harder the exercise will become. Supporting more of your body weight on the ball will make it easier to do push ups.
4. Greater Range of Motion – For many abdominal exercises the ball allows for a greater range of motion, which helps to increase your flexibility and strength in 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.
5. Dynamic Transitions – The rolling aspect of the ball allows you to roll into positions with ease and a more challenging transition to another exercise. For instance when doing an exercise ball Pilates 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.
6. Improves Breathing Techniques – When doing an exercise ball Pilates workout, once again the dynamic transitions allow for more focused and deep abdominal breathing techniques.
7. Convenience – The exercise ball workout can be done anywhere. At home, when you travel, at the in-laws, in the yard. All you need a small amount of floor space and a ball. Most of the balls can be deflated and easily filled up with a foot or hand pump so you can pack them along anywhere you go.
8. Fun! – The big round ball adds an element of play to your exercise ball workout. Fun is an important aspect of any fitness routine because it inspires and motivates us to exercise.
Jennifer Adolfs is an Online Personal Trainer, as well as Pilates Mat and Equipment Specialist. Check out the many free articles available at http://www.pilates-back-joint-exercise.com , which links into her online training program that offers you 3 distinct exercise ball workouts
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Adolfs
What are the Benefits of an Exercise Ball Workout
Many people have seen exercise balls lying around the house of someone they know. Often times, when they are not being used to work out the muscles, they are being used as a chair for guests or another place to sit.
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Great Ab Exercises Using the Stability Ball
Whether or not you’ve used Fitter U, I put together 3 of my favourite ab exercises that you can do on the stability ball. But beware – they are a bit challenging. If you’re a beginner, you may want to keep this on the back burner
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Exercise Ball Exercises
Learn the bridge exercise on the exercise ball. It tones the butt, abdominals, hamstrings and thighs. Pilates exercise ball exercises are fun and help with balance.
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