Health

How to Exercise on the Ball

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 31, 2002 / 8:40 AM EST / CBS

How to have a ball while working out? Reporter Minna Lessig talks to us about exercising on these giant balls, which look like something out of "romper room."

The main benefit of using an exercise ball is to increase your core stability; this means your are constantly working your mid-section muscles, deep trunk muscles and back muscles.

An exercise ball workout allows you to exercise while taking some of the pressure off your lower back. You can even do something called "active sitting" on an exercise ball. It's called active sitting because you constantly have to make adjustments in order to stay balanced on the ball. These little adjustments get the circulation to the discs in your lower back and to your deep postural muscles. Active sitting can help you work on your posture.

Here are some ways of how to work out on the ball:

WARRIOR 2 YOGA POSE - This pose increases strength and flexibility in the inner thighs and hip rotator muscles.
BALANCE WITH LEG EXTENSION - Sit on the ball and do one-leg extensions. These extensions help strengthen the quadriceps and they help with balance and coordination.
BRIDGE - Basically your head, neck and a bit of your upper back is on the ball and your feet are on the floor. Your knees should be bent at a 90-degree angle so you are one straight line from shoulders to knees (back stays flat). This exercise strengthens your butt, quadriceps. And it's a great core stability exercise. You can make this exercise even harder by extending one leg off the ground.
CHEST FLIES WITH HAND WEIGHTS - Lying supine (face up) on the ball in the bridge position, do flies with hand weights. This works your chest, abdomen, butt, and quads.
LOWER BACK HYPEREXTENSIONS - Place your stomach on the ball to do this.