hey ya’ll thought id post this—- im trying to get into yoga, pilates, and the exercise ball workouts.  .  maybe this will help you like it helped me.  .  ! PS I’m thinking of pickin up one of those half exercise balls.

what size exercise balls do you find the most effective?

10 Fun Moves to Reshape Your Body With an Exercise Ball Workout
(continued)
No.  1: Squats With an Exercise Ball

  1.  Stand with the exercise ball propped between your lower (lumbar) spine and a wall, pressing slightly into the ball.  With hands at your sides or on hips, check that your feet are hip-width apart and slightly in front of you. 
  2.  Bending at your knees and hips, slowly move into a sitting position with your knees over your ankles.  Keep the ball in contact with your back as you move. 
  3.  Return to standing position, keeping the ball in contact with your back as you move. 

Repeat 8-15 times. 
Challenge: Lift one foot 1 or 2 inches off the floor and try doing the exercise with one leg at a time.  Switch and repeat with the other leg. 
No.  2: Birddogs With an Exercise Ball

  1.  Get on your hands and knees with the exercise ball under your abdomen. 
  2.  Lift and extend your opposite arm and leg off the floor at the same time. 
  3.  Reach away from the center of your body while balancing on the ball and keeping your hips stable. 

Repeat 8 times on each side. 
Challenge: Hold the position longer. 
No.  3: Supine Bridges With an Exercise Ball

  1.  Sit on the exercise ball with your hands on your hips or crossed on your chest. 
  2.  Walk forward, gradually rolling the ball out until it supports your head and shoulders, instead of your buttocks.  As you roll out, be sure to keep your weight on top of the ball. 
  3.  Form a flat “tabletop” with your hips, shoulders, and knees aligned—and your feet flat on the floor, directly under your knees. 
  4.  Without moving the ball, lower and lift your hips, tightening muscles in your buttocks and backs of your thighs. 
  5.  Repeat 8-15 times. 
    Challenge: Lie on your back with the ball under your feet and your arms on the floor, palms down.  Gradually lift your back off the floor, then return to the floor with control. 
    Advanced challenge: Repeat the challenge, but with your arms off the floor. 

No.  4: Push-ups With an Exercise Ball

  1.  Lie face down with the exercise ball underneath your belly and your palms flat on the floor. 
  2.  Use your hands to walk out to a plank position, resting the ball anywhere from your hips to your ankles.  (This should be a position that provides for a challenging push-up, but allows your spine to stay aligned - with ears, shoulders, and hips in a line.  )
  3.  Bend your elbows to lower your upper body toward the floor, keeping your shoulders away from your ears and your abdominal muscles engaged. 
  4.  Repeat 8-10 times. 
    Challenge: Move the ball closer to your ankles. 
    Advanced challenge: Perform the push-ups with your hands on the ball and toes on the floor. 

No.  5: Abdominal Tucks With an Exercise Ball

  1.  Get into a push-up position with the exercise ball under your knees and your palms flat on the floor. 
  2.  Tuck your knees in toward your chest as the ball rolls toward your ankles. 
  3.  Return to the starting position, staying balanced on the ball. 
  4.  Repeat 8-10 times. 
    Note: Use caution if you have high blood pressure or if this exercise causes wrist pain. 
    Challenge: Alternate rotating your hips right and left as you tuck. 
    Advanced challenge: Keeping your legs straight, move your hips toward the ceiling until the ball is at your ankles.

No.  6: Hamstring Curls With an Exercise Ball

  1.  Lie on your back with the exercise ball under your heels and your palms flat on the floor. 
  2.  Lift hips slightly and bend your knees to draw the ball toward your buttocks, without moving your hips. 
  3.  Repeat 8-15 times. 
    Challenge: Raise your hips higher as you pull the ball toward you. 
    Advanced challenge: Keeping it straight, lift one leg toward the ceiling, and try single leg curls.  Keep your hips stable throughout. 

No.  7: Crunches With an Exercise Ball

  1.  Lie with your middle back on the exercise ball, feet flat on the floor shoulder-width apart, and hands behind your head. 
  2.  Lift your upper body up, using your abdominal muscles, not your neck.  Do not pull with your hands. 
  3.  Repeat 8-15 times. 
    Challenge: Begin with the ball lower on your back, which puts more body weight into your abdominals. 
    Advanced challenge: Lift one foot off the ground and try the crunches.  Switch and repeat with the opposite foot off the ground. 

No.  8: Walk-outs With an Exercise Ball

  1.  Rest your belly on the exercise ball and hands and toes on the floor. 
  2.  Walk out your hands to a plank position with the ball under your ankles. 
  3.  Then walk back, trying to keep the ball under your body. 

Repeat 6-8 times. 
Challenge: Hold the plank position for a few breaths before returning
No 9: Balance With an Exercise Ball

  1.  Sit on the exercise ball, with your hands on your hips. 
  2.  Lengthen your spine as you imagine a string pulling the top of your head up. 
  3.  Plant your feet together on the ground in front of the ball. 
  4.  Lift one foot off the floor and hold for 3 to 5 seconds.  Switch legs. 
  5.  Repeat 8 times with each leg. 
    Challenge: Position toes on the ground and heels up.  Slowly lift the toes on one foot off the ground.  Repeat with the other foot. 
    Advanced challenge: Lift both feet off the floor.  Sit with only the ball touching the floor. 

No.  10: T, Y, I With an Exercise Ball

  1.  Get on your hands and knees with the exercise ball pressing into your hips and thighs. 
  2.  Keep toes down and knees bent, but lift your knees slightly off the floor.  Tightening your abdominal muscles, try to lift your arms out to the sides of your body (into a T position). 
  3.  Then slowly move your arms forward (into a Y position) and then straight out overhead (into an I position).  Maintain a neutral spine with strong abdominals and shoulders out of the ears. 
  4.  Repeat 4 times in each T, Y, and I position. 
    Challenge: Repeat the exercise with one leg lifted up. 
    Advanced challenge: Repeat the exercise with both legs lifted up or use hand weights. 

Published February 2007. 

CHEERS!

Anybody else think this is hysterical?

How did this slip by?

GD these balls would make for some great skunk works targets!

Challenge: Hold the plank position for a few breaths before returning
Advanced challenge: Repeat the challenge, but with your arms off the floor.
More advanced challenge: Repeat the advanced challenge while performing push-ups with your hands on your toes and the ball off the floor

Note: Use caution if you have high blood pressure because this exercise causes wrist pain. 

TP
I am at a loss.  FBTS I think.

Garddawg - 27 October 2009 11:10 AM

TP
I am at a loss.  FBTS I think.

I saw it at the time but figured they were genuinely trying to be helpful, didn’t have any links to any other sites in the posts, weren’t trying to sell anything, so I let it be.

And laugh all you like, but the advanced challenge of #4 done on a tightly inflated large ball is hard! Do them honestly, touching your upper chest to the ball instead of your stomach and you’ll wind up on the floor in a flash if you’re pushing at all unevenly. Having spent a lot of time working on these things is what I attribute having never had any difficulty with the stability aspects of ring dips or ring push-ups. I didn’t realise ring work was supposed to be harder than normal dips or push-ups until I heard all the complaints. I still have more trouble with an elevated feet stability ball push up (hands on the ball and feet on a window sill for example) than I do with ring push-ups, not that I excel at either, but that’s because of lack of strength rather than issues with stability.

Stability balls aren’t the be all and end al of exercise equipment as you’ll hear from the people selling them, but they’re not a waste of time either. It depends on how you use them and what you expect from them.

They are enormously wasteful of space though.
I keep my small Paul Chek one inflated, but the others I had are all laying around deflated.

Edit: Woops, missed the link to the exercise ball site, sorry. Luckily they didn’t post too often I guess.

Metric,
Think you are right probably meant in a positive way, not knowing

Level of Difficulty ( does not) = transferrable efficient strength or skill

Because something is hard does not make it effective exercise

BlueBugofJustice - 27 October 2009 12:04 PM

Metric,
Think you are right probably meant in a positive way, not knowing

Level of Difficulty ( does not) = transferrable efficient strength or skill

Because something is hard does not make it effective exercise

Yes.
In the case of the push-ups though I think they do have value for developing the skills that ring push-ups are frequently programmed to enhance. And in that case while the two exercises overlap in the skill they require, each offers something the other doesn’t.
I wouldn’t however keep a stability ball around for that purpose, they’re too specialised and very clumsy to store.
I’d have rings and ignore the small benefit the ball might offer if used as well as the rings.

Maybe it’s something we’ll have to agree to differ on. I don’t have anything other than my own anecdotal evidence to draw on and my working theory at the moment is that the movement has value in certain applications, mainly remedying particular skill deficiencies and possibly rehab.

I suppose that means that if I’m ever at BX again I’ll find a WOD with my name on it either demanding that everyone in the class do large numbers of feet elevated push-ups on specially purchased stability balls or perform a “Flying J.T.” (J.T. done on rings, including the HSPU) variant of some sort.
The first I know I can do as well or as badly as I do regular push-ups (i.e. badly), the second I can do as well or as badly as regular J.T. (i.e. very badly indeed).