Friday, November 2, 2007

Core workouts- trying your stability ball

As promised, here are some good exercises to start with for core work and stability balls-

• Crunches- Moving off the ground and onto a ball supports your back a bit more, and gives you a better range of motion for your crunch. Experiment with moving the ball between your lower back to high back for different ranges of balance.
• Push ups- Again, experiment with having the ball only on your toes, at your knees, and at hips for a variety of balance.
• Free weights- You can lay with legs bent or sit on the ball and use free weights like a typical gym bench plus the core benefits.

For more ideas, here is a great site with several ways to use your ball, description and pictures on how to complete each exercise as well as a section describing which muscles groups are mostly used in each workout.

2 comments:

CCHarmony said...

I think the link is missing? Also, wanted to say I love, love, love the stability ball. Denise Austen actually has a CD where she has weight lifting combined with the stability ball, and it is great!

Dana said...

CCHarmony-

Thanks for bringing that to my attention and the tip! I was unable to find the exact site I wanted to use there but I did replace the link with a good site with tips for beginners exercises on the ball.

Thanks for reading!