Strength Training with a Fitness Ball

Strength Training Balls are Multipurpose Training Tools

Do you like to work out at home, but your space is limited? The same large fitness ball that you use for stretching and yoga also can serve as a strength training ball. Some advantages of performing strength training exercises using a ball include:

• Customization. You can make your workouts more or less challenging by adjusting the inflation of your strength training ball. You can add difficulty by using heavier hand weights or tougher resistance bands to do strength training exercises while sitting on the ball.
• Core strength. Strength training with a fitness ball engages your core muscles as well as the muscles of your arms and legs. Use a large fitness ball instead of a weight bench, and you create instability that increases the intensity of any strength training exercise.
• Convenience. A large strength training ball is easy to store at home, and even a set of mini medicine balls don’t take up any more space than free weights.
  
  
  

Use a Ball to Build Strength without Bulk

The benefits of strength training for women include everything from losing weight to improving mental health to preventing osteoporosis. But many women may still have concerns that strength training will cause them to “bulk up.” Doing strength training exercises with a fitness ball or medicine ball is a great way for women to build strength while also improving their flexibility and core fitness.

Once you have mastered the basics of an exercise ball workout, try this advanced move that targets the abdominals--the oblique lift.

• Kneel on your right knee with your left leg extending out to the left side as you lean the right side of your torso against a fitness ball.
• Place your hands in fists at your temples, with your elbows pointing out to the sides.
• Tighten your abdominal muscles and lift your torso away from the ball.
• Release. Repeat as desired, and then repeat on the other side.

Strength Train on the Ball in the off Season

If you are a serious athlete in a sport that has a defined season, it’s important to find ways to keep in shape and work some different muscles during the off-season.

A regular exercise ball workout during the off season can help a competitive athlete with the active recovery that is important during off-season training or during a transition phase of training. Stability ball exercises can promote the core strength that sets the stage for more intense resistance training as you build back up to competitive training.

Try an exercise ball workout in the off season using lighter weights than you might use with an exercise machine, and aim for 15-20 repetitions 2 to 3 times a week.

Be sure to include a range of exercises in your strength training exercise ball workout:

• Upper body: An incline chest press with light weights works your arms and shoulders.
• Lower body: The squat and press works your legs, hips, and glutes.
• Core: A stability ball becomes an abdominal exercise ball when you use it for crunches.

Build Strength with a Squat Press

If you want to get the strength training benefits of a squat without relying on a machine at the gym, try a squat press using a medicine ball. Not only is medicine ball training an effective way to build strength, you’ll be engaging your core muscles, which will improve your balance and posture, too.

When you try this squat press using a medicine ball, start with a lighter weight until you learn the technique, then progress to a heavier ball. Sets of medicine balls, such as the FitBALL® Mini Med Ball, provide a range of weight options.

• Start with your feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent.
• Hold the medicine ball in front of your face at ear level.
• Bend your knees and lower into a full squat, dropping your arms toward the floor (but don’t let the medicine ball touch the floor).
• Stand up immediately, extending your arms straight up over your head as you continue to hold the medicine ball with both hands.
• Return to the starting position. Repeat as desired.
  
  
  

Inclined to Try a New Strength Exercise?

You can increase the intensity of your strength training workouts by incorporating both a large fitness ball, also known as a strength training ball, and small medicine balls, such as the FitBALL® Mini Med balls.

The incline chest press is a great medicine ball training exercise that you can do on a fitness ball, so you are developing core strength and better balance as well as working your upper body.

• Start by lying on a large fitness ball so it is centered under your upper back. Hold a small weight or mini medicine ball in each hand.
• Roll down into a squat, keeping your back on the ball and your feet flat on the floor. Your hips should be a few inches off the floor.
• Hold the weights at shoulder level and press them straight up toward the ceiling. Keep your elbows in line with your wrists as you press up. The weights should stay in line with the center of your chest.
• Return to the starting position. Aim for 2 sets of 12-15 repetitions. Once that gets easy, add another set or increase the weight that you are lifting.

Use a Ball as Your Bench for a Bent Over Row

One of the many ways to combine strength training with balance training is to do exercises that you would usually do on a weight bench on a strength training ball instead. Try the quintessential bent-over row as a medicine ball exercise, too, by using a strength training ball and use small medicine balls, such as the FitBALL® Mini Med balls.

• Start by placing your left hand on a large fitness ball, and hold the small medicine ball in your right hand, letting the right arm hang straight down.
• Keep your feet hip distance apart, and bend your knees slightly.
• Lean forward from the hips, keeping your back straight.
• Keeping your right elbow close to your body, squeeze your shoulder blades together as you bend your right elbow and pull the mini med ball to waist level.
• Return to the starting position.
• Repeat as desired, and then switch sides.

Boost Recovery with Ball Training

If you are recovering from an injury or surgery, physical therapy exercises using a strength training ball can help you regain strength and balance. You can perform a range of exercises on a large fitness ball with a smaller medicine ball so you don’t have to navigate a gym machine when you aren’t at your best in terms of strength and flexibility. You can modify ball workouts easily by adjusting the inflation of a large fitness ball or using a heavier medicine ball.

Since the injuries that lead to physical therapy are often associated with muscle imbalances, physical therapy training involves improving the stabilizing muscles to promote correct alignment.

Try a series of physical therapy exercises that includes both crunches and back extensions on a large ball. You’ll be strengthening opposing muscle groups and improving your balance. Be sure not to pull on your neck in either of these positions. Keep your hands beside your ears instead of clasping them behind your neck to avoid neck strain.

Change Up Your Strength Training with Fitness Balls

One of the basic principles of exercise is the principle of overload—you have to challenge your muscles to make them stronger. An exercise ball workout is a great way to change up your strength training plan. Some benefits of using a fitness ball, also known as a strength training ball, include:

• Functional fitness. Doing strength exercises on a ball allows you to use your muscles more like you do in everyday life, which doesn’t always happen when you do your strength training on a weight machine.
• Stability training. Doing strength exercises on a ball engages your core muscles, which will give you the stability to lift more weight and strengthen other muscles.

Looking for another way to add exercise ball workouts to your fitness routine? Use a large fitness ball as an abdominal exercise ball, and do crunches on the ball rather than on a bench or the floor.

Enhance Your Strength Training with a Balance Board

A balance board, also known as a wobble board, provides even more of a challenge to the core muscles than a fitness ball, and balance boards offer a slightly tougher balance challenge than balance discs. Most balance board exercises involve standing on the board, but you can start by sitting or kneeling on the board and working your way up to standing.

Whether you stand, sit, or kneel, you can add a balance board exercise to your strength training workout to engage the core muscles as well as the muscles of the arms and legs.

• Kneel (or sit, or stand) on a balance board and hold a small weight in each hand.
• Try to keep your balance while extending your arms out to the side. Then try doing simple biceps curls while standing, sitting, or kneeling on the board.

Try a Ball Chair to Build Balance

Are you trying to improve your strength and balance, but you aren’t quite ready for a fitness ball? An exercise ball chair can be a convenient alternative that helps you build core strength gradually. Sitting on an exercise ball helps promote good posture and strengthens the spine, and you’ll get a tough workout if you do strength training exercises using a fitness ball. But if you are intimidated by an exercise ball workout, try doing some strength exercises while sitting on an exercise ball chair, such as the FitBALL® chair, which comes with a 55-cm exercise ball and a pump.

Try this simple strength move using an exercise ball chair:

• Sit up tall on an exercise ball chair with your feet flat on the floor.
• Hold a small dumbbell or mini medicine ball in each hand, with your arms at your sides.
• Perform alternating biceps curls, bending your elbows and bringing your hand to your shoulder.

Strength Train While Sitting

If you have a desk job, and an understanding supervisor, you can promote core strength throughout the day by sitting in a Swiss ball chair, also known as an exercise ball chair.

A Swiss ball chair is what it sounds like—a large Swiss ball placed in a stand that has wheels like an office chair. Some types of Swiss ball chairs, such as the FitBALL® chair, have small pieces for back support.

You can get an exercise ball workout with a Swiss ball chair beyond simply sitting on it for 8 hours a day. But try this simple leg extension during long periods of sitting:

• Sit in the center of your Swiss ball chair.
• Pull your abdominal muscles in toward your spine.
• Extend the left leg straight out so it is parallel to the floor and level with your hip as much as possible. Your quad muscle should be working hard.
• Hold for a count of 2, and then relax. Repeat as desired (try for 10-12 times) and then repeat on the other side.

Stretch to Include a Fitness Ball in Physical Therapy

Physical therapy training varies depending on your medical history and what type of injury or surgery may have put you in need of physical therapy. There are many great exercises to help you stretch and strengthen your body as you recover, and many of them can be performed using an exercise ball.

To help stretch the sides of your back and waist, and even your hips, try this variation of the popular yoga Child’s Pose that uses a strength training ball:

• Start by kneeling in front of a fitness ball with your feet together and your knees either together or out in a v-shape.
• Reach your arms forward and place both hands on the ball.
• Push the ball forward slightly as you drop your head down between your arms.
• Keeping your arms extended and your hands on the ball, shift your way to your right hip and roll the ball slightly to the left for a deeper side stretch. Repeat on the opposite side.

Use an Exercise Ball to Ease into Core Strength

Strength training using a strength training ball can be an ideal part of a physical therapy exercise program. A large fitness ball can be used to modify certain core strength training exercises that promote balance and proper alignment.

Try an alternating arm and leg extension while balancing your torso on a fitness ball. This exercise promotes core strength, endurance and flexibility. Go slowly and carefully, and ask your physical therapist for advice if you feel any pain during this, or any exercise ball workout.

• Place the strength training ball under your torso, so you can kneel over it with your hands and knees on the floor. You may need a smaller or less inflated ball.
• Lift your right arm and left leg and extend them straight out, parallel to the floor as much as possible. Be sure to keep your neck relaxed, and breathe evenly.
• Hold for a count of two, then release.
• Repeat on the other side, with the left arm and right leg extended.
• Continue alternating for as many repetitions as you want.

Exercise at Home Starts with Your Chair

Yes, it’s possible to work on strength and balance training while you’re sitting at a desk. A home office can be a great place to use an exercise ball chair instead of an ordinary desk chair. A Swiss ball chair such as the FitBALL® chair is simply a large fitness ball in a stand with wheels and a small back support piece. You can use the ball as a chair, and then take it out of the chair stand and use it as an ab exercise ball, or use it for any other exercise ball workout.

Try this strength and balance exercise when you’re sitting at your home office desk or watching TV:

• Sit up straight on the exercise ball chair with your feet flat on the floor.
• Place your hands behind your head, with your elbows out to the sides.
• Lift your right foot off the floor and hold for a count of 5, concentrating on keeping your abs pulled in toward your spine as you sit up straight.
• Lower the right foot and repeat with the left foot.

Fitness Balls Help Arthritis Sufferers Build Strength

Exercise is important for good health, and individuals who suffer from arthritis need not miss out on the benefits of regular activity. In fact, if you have arthritis, your overall fitness routine should include three different types of exercises:

• Strengthening: Strong muscles can better support arthritic joints and help reduce joint pain.
• Range of motion: Range of motion exercises done each day can help keep arthritic joints mobile and prevent stiffness.
• Cardio/endurance: Cardiovascular exercise has been shown to increase strength and improve symptoms in arthritis patients.

If you have arthritis, discuss exercise options with your doctor. The type and intensity of exercise that’s right for you will depend on several factors, including the type of arthritis you have, the joints that are involved, the amount of inflammation, and any other physical limitations that you might have.

Build Better Biceps with a Medicine Ball Press

When you do combine medicine ball training with a large fitness ball, you’ll be working your core muscles in addition to your upper body. For example, doing a medicine ball press while sitting on a fitness ball or exercise ball chair works the biceps, shoulders, and abdominals.

• Sit on a large strength training ball or Swiss ball chair with your feet flat on the floor.
• Hold a medicine ball in your right hand, and start with your right arm down by your side.
• Bend your elbow and bring your right arm up into a biceps curl.
• Engage your shoulders and push your right arm up toward the ceiling. Your arm will be slightly diagonal. Keep your abs pulled in toward your spine.
• Return to the starting position.
• Try for 8-10 repetitions, and then switch to the other side.

Advanced Strength Training: Medicine Ball Extensions

If you are a veteran of core strength training using a fitness ball, try combining medicine ball training with a strength training ball for a total body exercise that works not only your arms and legs, but your abdominals and back as well.

You can adjust the difficulty of this exercise by adjusting the inflation of your strength training ball. The firmer the ball, the greater the balance challenge.

• Start by lying on a strength training ball, with the ball under your upper back. Your knees should be bent, and your feet should be flat on the floor.
• Hold a medicine ball in both hands at chest level.
• Push your arms straight up to the ceiling.
• Slowly extend your arms down and over your head, so your arms are level with your torso as much as possible.
• Raise your right foot off the floor and extend your right leg straight out so it is level with your hip.
• Return to the starting position, and repeat with the other leg.
• Alternate legs for 8-10 repetitions on each side.