Pilates ball exercises are an essential part of a Pilates regimen. You will love it like me. After a while you might even consider joining the circus, you’ll get so adept at exercises! They are also sometimes referred to as Pilates, Balance, Fitness, Swiss, or Stability Balls, but in fact, they are more about instability.

For starters, when you start your Pilates ball exercises, you’ll wobble a bit, and that’s a good thing, because you’re using all those wonderful deep stabilizer muscles that automatically kick in when the urge is challenged. We have 2 categories of muscles, some mobilizing muscles (eg biceps, hamstrings) and other stabilizers (eg back and transverse muscles).

5 great reasons to become unstable!

1. First, the benefits. These include core strength (including better abs), improved balance, better posture, improved flexibility, and lots of fun while doing it. Isn’t exercise supposed to be fun?

2. Everyone loves big abs and a flat stomach. Why use the ball for this? I’ll tell you. It’s all in the hips. If you do sit-ups (or crunches) on the floor, your hips stay in the same position and only allow you to flex your torso forward. However, if you do sit-ups on the ball, your torso will also extend back, increasing your full range of motion.

Because you’re not as stable on a moving object, you’re also forcing the deeper stabilizing muscles to work. And this means that you will burn more calories because more of you is working. Bingo!

3. Balls are also a wonderful way to improve balance, the loss of which often has devastating consequences and as time goes by, it is VERY important to keep this in mind. Even if you are 20-30 years old, you should think about this. Because it offers no stability, your body works trying to balance on it. The perfect posture of the spine with its natural curves is also the best for balance: your body will automatically try to align itself in the proper posture when you develop your core strength.

4. All my favorite stretches are on the ball. So another reason to use one is to improve flexibility. You’ll find stretches for the pecs, quads, hamstrings, hips, psoas, and obliques. The ability to move freely without pain is a wonderful benefit of Pilates. Tight muscles prevent this flexibility and cause pain in the joints.

5. Sitting too long at a computer at work results in poor posture. Using the Pilates ball on your desk is a wise choice.

For starters, it’s hard to slouch, and secondly, you’ll constantly be changing positions and moving around to answer the phone, grab that file, and reach for the drawer. Your whole body has to move to do this, not just from the waist up, and this prevents tension and tight muscles.

Sitting face down in the office chair in the same position all day is unhealthy and harms the body (for example, it inhibits blood circulation). You may also want to do some crunches every once in a while! I’m sure the boss won’t mind, the whole office may join in…

6. And a bonus… the last one… you’ll LOVE it!

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