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Fitness Ball - weight training benefits and exercises

The latest installment in our Fitness Ball Series; exploring the benefits, exercises and advantages of the Fitness Ball.

Using the Fitness Ball for Weight Training
One of the latest things I am using my fitness ball for is to replace the traditional bench that I do bench press on. I have seen a lot of people (including professional athletes) using a fitness ball as their support while doing weights. Doing so has a lot of advantages.

Initial Concerns
Initially I was a little hesitant to use a fitness ball as a support while I was lifting extremely heavy and dangerous weights all over the place. I was concerned that the fitness ball would not be stable enough and I would tip over and do a serious injury.

However, I gave it a go using a light weight until I got my bearings and it was much easier than I first thought. And, since then, I can report some excellent progress that I attribute to the fitness ball.

Advantages of the Fitness Ball over a regular bench
There are quite a few advantages to using a fitness ball over a regular bench. In past articles we have talked about the benefits of doing crunches and other stomach exercises on the fitness ball, but never looked at the benefits it can have on other parts of your body.

Beating Back Pain
One of the main health benefits of the fitness ball is that it is quite amazing at healing back injuries. Many physiotherapists use the fitness ball as the basis for their clients exercises and routines for repairing damaged backs.

Likewise, Flight Centre, an Australian Travel Agent company has replaced chairs in their offices with fitness balls so as to prevent staff back and neck injuries. Its quite funny to walk past a Flight Centre office and see them all bouncing up and down at their computers!

I was interested to see whether the fitness ball would help my back if I just used it in my regular weight training. And, it has helped quite a bit. My back seems more balanced and even than it did before. Partly, I think this has something to do with the effect the ball has on the abdominal muscles. Strengthening your abs always helps your back as it provides the opposing support.

Other Advantages to the Fitness Ball
Some other advantages we have talked about before are:

• Increasing the Range of Motion
• Getting a deeper stretch and thus a better muscle workout
• Using other muscles to help balance during exercises thus getting a better total workout
• Changing up the emphasis on the muscle due to the different angles thus keeping our muscles guessing
• Taking pressure off of certain joints as the ball is soft and round

Weight Training Exercises for the Fitness Ball
So, which exercises are suitable for the fitness ball. Obviously, not all of them. If you find you are using a lot of weight on a certain exercises perhaps steer clear of using the fitness ball until you are an expert.

My favourite weight training exercises for the ball are:

• Squats
  If you do squats without weight because of a knee injury or a bad back, place a ball between your back and the wall and lean on it slightly to keep your back straight while squatting.
• Dumb bell Bench Press
  The ball allows a deeper stretch and doesn’t impede your arms motion like an ordinary bench can.
• Cable Flys
  Place the ball between two low pulley cables and peform flys while lying down. The ball works well here.
• Push ups
  With your feet up on the ball perform push ups. It seriously is much harder than a bench because you have to control the wobble!
• Dumb bell Overhead Press
  Sit up straight on the ball and perform your over head presses. Again, the wobble forces you to use your abs and other supporting muscles to stay still. I really like this one.

There are so many different ways to use the fitness ball. Its number one advantage would have to be its effects on the back and abs so I would really urge everyone to give it a go.

More to come
I will start posting some details and picture instructions of how to do the exercises in weeks to come. Feel free to email me with your comments, suggestions or requests.

Meanwhile, does anyone have any other exercises they do on the fitness ball?

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