Have a Ball!!!!!

The stability ball is one of the fitness industry's most versatile, fun, affordable and necessary pieces of equipment. It's a large inflatable ball, which can be used to improve balance, strengthen your core and improve posture and flexibility. In Europe, stability balls have been successfully used in schools as chairs. They are also known as birthing balls in the labour room, yoga balls in classes and, Physio balls for therapy and rehabilitation.

Imagine taking most of the exercises you do in the weight room and performing them on an unstable ball. This instability will allow you to utilize many muscles that you would not otherwise develop in your current program. For example, the stabilization required to maintain a push-up position (i.e. hands on the ball feet on the floor) recruits and develops the stabilizers and neutralizers of the shoulder girdle/joint in a way that a chest machine cannot. The improved joint function, due to this stabilization work, results in better joint function, decreased chance of injury and the ability to produce more force.

Training on a stability ball improves your balance and stability, an element that you don't necessarily obtain in traditional weight training The instability of the ball forces your body to use neutralizing and stabilizing muscles to stay balanced in a given position or through a particular motion. This impacts your everyday life; in sports your performance can be better since you are able to apply more power and strength to any situation, especially out on the golf course, when you need to balance and stabilize your body. In weight training you will strengthen some of the muscles that may have been preventing your from breaking your plateau. At work, you are able to stand or sit more comfortably without experiencing back pain.

Here are a few exercises that you can add to your existing routine to improve your core strength, balance, stability and posture:

Reverse Bridge
		Push-ups off stability Ball
		Sit-ups on the Stability Ball