Interactive

Stability Ball

The whole purpose of an exercise or stability ball is to work on your balance, co-ordination and strength. It is excellent for working on improving your posture and working key muscle in your abs, back, thighs and bum.

The whole purpose of an exercise or stability ball is to work on your balance, co-ordination and strength. Sit on a ball and you immediately have to think about trying to stop the ball from wobbling, unlike a chair which you can sink into without thinking about having to hold yourself upright.

Using a ball is therefore excellent for working on improving your posture and working key muscle in your abs, back, thighs and bum. The fact that it requires much more control means that you will use up more energy, which basically means you will burn more calories!

Using an exercise ball is an excellent way of working the 'core stabilisers' - deep abdominal muscles that partially wrap around your spine and are key to good posture. Regularly using a fitness ball will improve your flexibility, strength, balance, co-ordination and postural control.

The stability ball works the deep spinal muscles which support the spine during our normal daily activity. The best method of improving core stability is to train in an unstable environment. Because of the ball's instability and mobility when you do traditional exercises using the ball (eg. bicep curls), you have to use your deep stabilisers.

The ball's mobility allows you to do excellent stretches and increase flexibility. Because the stability ball concentrates on deep postural muscles as well as training the visible abdominals, biceps and hamstrings, training with the ball helps you look good as well as improving your internal fitness.

The ball needs to be the right size for you - you should be able to sit on it with your knees bent at 90 or just above 90 degrees. Keep your ball fully inflated and make sure it has anti-burst qualities.

Regularly using a stability ball will improve your aerobic capacity, flexibility, strength, relaxation, balance, co-ordination and postural control.