The Daily News – Fit to Be Tried by Devin Sherrington
Some people use them in their rec rooms. Others sit on them at work all day. It seems everywhere you look, there they are.
Stability Balls, or Exercise Balls have become all the rage. They range in size from three feet down to one foot in diameter, and come in a wide assortment of colors.
But what the heck are those huge red, green and purple balls for?
Stability Balls are used in many exercises including crunches, pelvic thrusts, dumbbell bench press, even squats. The purpose for using the Stability Ball for exercises is to create a more natural motion, improve balance and create functional muscle.
Functional muscle is a buzz phrase, which means multipurpose muscle. I other words, muscles you’ll use in everyday life.
Don’t worry. I don’t know a law saying you can’t use your muscles for other purposes. But most exercises do build muscles, which work best for that certain exercise. Using a Stability Ball helps to make those exercises translate into other movements or sports more naturally.
When performing an exercise on a Stability Ball, your body is forced to use stabilizer muscles, which you don’t use in a conventional exercise. If you lie on a bench, your body is ground and balanced fairly well. You don’t have to worry about falling off to one side so you can concentrate on doing the exercise.
With a Stability Ball, you lose that balance, and have to concentrate on controlling your body as well as do the exercise. Your body will have to use all the little stabilizer muscles to keep you from falling over. As those muscles strengthen, your balance and coordination improves.
Stability Balls are used by many pro athletes for this reason.
Since Stability Balls are often used for abdominal work, I’ll give you an abdominal exercise to try.
A word of caution. Don’t use a Stability Ball for any other exercise unless you have talked to a trainer first. One wrong move on a ball could cause serious injury.
A conventional crunch is done by lying on your back, on the floor. You bend your knees, and place your feet on the ground. From this position, you roll your chest and shoulders up toward your knees, while keeping your lower back in contact with the floor.
Stability Balls are curved so they allow you to perform crunches with a longer range of motion. The longer the range of motion for an exercise, the more the muscle is worked.
A Stability Ball crunch is more difficult, but also a better exercise. Place your lower back on the top of the ball. Set your feet flat on the floor, about shoulder width apart for balance.
Allow your back to bend backwards molding to the ball’s curve. From this extended position you crunch upward rolling your chest and shoulders forward –squeezing you abdomials. Don’t tuck your chin. Point it upwards, with your head tilted slightly back.
Do three sets of 12 to 20 repetitions, with about a minute break between sets.
Give Stability Ball crunches a try. They are hard, but the results are worth the effort.
