I previously mentioned that the balance ball is my favorite exercise equipment for home use on an earlier post on weight lifting to burn fat. In this post, I will tell you why I like the balance/stability ball so much.
Bodyweight Training
I am a fan of incorporating bodyweight training into workouts. Why? Because you should be able to master and control your own body weight before attempting to control any extra weight. You don’t walk around carrying dumbells all days do you? Bodyweight training helps you build an all-around athletic body that can serve as a good base for any physical activity.
The only problem with bodyweight training is that there are only a few number of exercises you can perform with on extra equipment. Also, if you keep performing the same exercises too much, your muscles start to plateau and your workouts start to become less effective.
The stability ball is a perfect way to add variety into your bodyweight exercises to keep you muscles from plateauing.
Balance Training
Balance plays an important role in many sports and daily physical activities. When you are trying to stay balanced, your muscles are responding to constant neurological signals. The more you train your muscles to respond to these neurological signals, the more you will improve in the following areas of fitness:
- Agility
- Flexibility
- Joint stability
- Muscle memory
- Muscular endurance
- Muscle mass
Multiple Muscle Systems
When you incorporate balance training into your exercises, you force more of your muscles to activate; thus, making your workout more effective. Compare doing push-ups with your feet on a chair and doing push-ups with your feet on a balance ball. You will definitely feel that using the balance ball is a much more effective. This means that you spend less time developing more muscles. Outside the gym, you can even substitute a balance ball for your chair at work to develop your core muscles while you work (as explained in these weight loss tips). What’s there not to like about that?
Conclusion
Costing around $20 each, the balance ball’s usefulness and effectively highly outweighs its cost. I use GoFit Ultimate Burst Resistant Core Stability Ball at home. I like it because it is durable and it comes with a workout DVD. You can opt for more expensive ones or cheaper ones if you want, but you really get what you pay for. Just don’t go too cheap and risk one bursting on you.
