7 Surprising Exercises You Can Do on a Stability Ball

Play ball! This versatile piece of equipment does more than train your core. Reshape your total body with these unique moves

If you think the stability ball is only for crunches, you're sorely mistaken. Sure, the wobbly surface is great for training your core, but it can also be used for a ton of total-body exercises that challenge your strength, stability, and coordination without requiring you to jump from machine to machine at the gym. We asked Frank Baptiste, CSCS, owner of Frankly Fitness in New York City, to teach us some unique—and effective—moves using this versatile piece of equipment. Get the ball rolling by incorporating these exercises into your next workout.

4 Effecitve time in a day of weight-loss

3 Ways Of Measuring Body fat

1. SUPINE HIP EXTENSION

"It's all in the hips," says Baptiste. "Whether walking, running, jumping, or simply standing up, everything in sport and life involves extension at our hips. This spin on a classic glute bridge shakes things up by forcing you to work on core stability while strengthening the entire glute complex."

How to do it: Lie on your back and place your feet near the top of the ball, knees bent. Extend your arms out to your sides, palms down, to help keep your balance. Drive your feet into the ball to lift your hips so your body forms a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Squeeze your glutes tight to keep your hips in line. Slowly lower your hips to return to start position. That's 1 rep. Perform10 to 15 reps. Mastered the move? Try it with one leg for added challenge.

Trainer Tip: Pull your belly button toward the floor before raising your hips to ensure the lumbar spine is aligned and stable.


A way to loss 3.5 kg in 3 days

7 Delicious Ways to Get Your Vitamin A

2. PIKE PRESS

Handstand pushups are feats of superhuman balance and strength seemingly reserved for gymnasts or martial artists. Great news for mere mortals: You can get the same better-body benefits by using a stability ball. This total-body, core combination move helps you develop serious, functional upper-body strength, says Baptiste. "You will never need help putting your luggage in the overhead bin again."

How to do it: Start in pushup position with your arms extended and shins on the ball. Keeping your arms and legs straight, lift your hips (pike) to draw the ball toward your arms. When your shoulders and upper torso are in a straight line over your hands, perform a handstand pushup by bending your elbows to lower your head toward the floor. Straighten your arms and slowly lower your hips to return to pushup position. That's 1 rep. Perform 5 to 10 reps.

Trainer Tip: Practice the stability ball pike by itself until you've gained the strength and confidence to add the press.


15 Daily Fat-Fighting Tips

20 Tips to Waste Less Food


3. REAR FLOOR ELEVATED SPLIT SQUAT

Adding a stability ball to this lower-body buster enhances its balance-training effects. "Lower-body strength is the key to healthy aging," says Baptiste, "and this is the ultimate exercise for developing unilateral leg strength and balance."

How to do it: Stand in front of a small stability ball in a split stance position (one foot farther front than the other). Rest the laces of the rear foot on top of the ball. Bend your front knee—like you do during a lunge —until your thigh is parallel to the floor. Return to start position. That's 1 rep. Perform 8 to 12 reps.

Trainer Tip: Choose a stride length that allows you to put 80% of your weight on your front foot.

5 Key Foods for Your Healthy Eating Plan


4. PUSHUP TO SKIER CRUNCH

"Although it's often thought of as an upper-body exercise, the pushup is a total-body move that requires all 38 pairs of core muscles to fire," says Baptiste. But it's the addition of the stability ball that really gives this move an extra kick. "The unstable surface challenges stability, elevating your feet increases upper-body challenge, and adding the skier crunch requires superior core endurance."

How to do it: Start in pushup position with your arms extended and shins on the ball. Perform a pushup, making sure to keep your hips in line with your feet and shoulders. After completing the pushup, perform the skier crunch: Keeping hips down, pull your knees toward your shoulders, allowing the ball to roll forward. Then straighten your knees to return to pushup position. That's 1 rep. Perform 8 to 12 reps.

Trainer Tip: Keep your shoulder blades tucked down and back. Stare at a spot on the floor about 6 inches in front of your hands to help you keep your balance.

Healthy Foods: What's Your Raw Diet?

Top 6 food to keep our skin moist 


5. DEADBUGS

Use this exercise to turn your stability-ball workout upside down—literally. Most stability-ball moves require you to balance atop the big, bouncy orb, but this lower-back saver challenges you to train your core while holding the ball above you. "This exercise reinforces the rotary stability we first developed when learning to crawl," says Baptiste. "In natural movement our limbs move contralaterally—think about how we use opposite arms and legs when walking or running. Here we train the core to resist rotation and extension as we extend our arms and legs away from our center of gravity."


How to do it: Lie on your back and hold a stability ball above you between your hands and inner thighs, knees bent 90 degrees. While tightly gripping the ball, extend your right arm and left leg to the floor. Hold for a breath and then return them to the ball. Then extend your left arm and right leg to the floor and hold for a breath. Continue alternating, performing 10 to 15 reps on each side, always making sure to squeeze the ball tightly between your hands and thighs.

4 Tricks to Planning and Sticking to a Healthy Eating Plan 


6. SINGLE-LEG STATIC SQUAT

Press pause on your single-leg squat to focus on proper alignment while also strengthening the muscles around the knees, says Baptiste. It's also a great way to work up to performing a dynamic single-leg squat with perfect form and good balance.

How to do it: Stand about 2 feet in front of a wall and squeeze a stability ball between your lower back and the wall. Lower into a squat (as if you're sitting into a chair), letting the ball roll up your back until your knees are bent 90 degrees. Lift one foot and maintain the position for 20 to 30 seconds. Return your raised foot to the floor and stand up. Repeat the move, lifting the opposite foot. That's 1 rep. Perform 6 to 8 reps.

An Easy Way Remove Pimple Scars


7. I's, Y's and T's

If you spend any amount of time hunched over a desk or steering wheel, incorporate these posture-saving moves into your routine. "They help balance joint actions and open the chest and anterior shoulders to improve posture," says Baptiste. "These are my number one recommendation for maintaining healthy shoulders. The train the rhomboids of the upper-back and posterior deltoids to stabilize the shoulder girdle and reverse hunched shoulders."


How to do it: Lie facedown on a stability ball so that your back is flat, your chest is off the ball, and the balls of your feet are still on the floor. Lift your chest slightly to extend your upper torso. Keep your eyes down and your chin tucked. Let your arms hang down from your shoulders.

I's: With thumbs pointing up, lift your arms straight out in front of you as high as they can comfortably go, forming an I shape. Pause for 2 seconds at the top of your raise and slowly release your arms. Perform 10 to 15 reps.

Y's: With thumbs pointing up, raise your arms at a 30-degree angle to your body (so that they form a Y shape). Pause for 2 seconds at the top of your raise and slowly release your arms. Perform 10 to 15 reps.

T's: With thumbs pointing up, raise your arms straight out to your sides until they're in line with your body, forming a T shape. Pause for 2 seconds at the top of your raise and slowly release your arms. Perform 10 to 15 reps.


Trainer Tip: Do these moves slowly to prevent using momentum. You get the most from these moves in the last few inches of each repetition.