Stability ball, also known as swiss ball, fitball, exercise ball or fitness ball, is one simple piece of equipment to have when training abs. (Stability ball is the only fitness equipment that I know has so many names!)
No abdominal machines or gadgets work as effective and safe as a stability ball. Here’s why…
When you sit in a machine, it stabilizes your body and your stabilizer muscles are not called into action. Not training your body to integrate other muscles to work together with the abdominal and deep core muscles creates strength imbalances and leads to injuries over the long term.
The benefits of training with stability ball include:
1. enhances balance, stability and control of deep muscles.
There are deep abdominal and back muscles that work as stabilizers for entire body. These muscles work together to protect spine and help with daily activities eg: lifting, throwing, bending, reaching, etc. When training with a swiss ball, the nature and instability improves centre of balance and activate stabilizer muscles. Unconditioned stabilizer muscles can lead to injury.
2. improves posture and support around joints.
Training with stability ball involves full range of motion and recruits additional muscle groups to maintain proper form. As the ball moves freely, it creates a wider range of motion for working the joints and keeping them flexible.
3 . greater muscle strength and endurance.
I’ve been training with stability ball for several years, and teach fitball classes twice a week. It’s an excellent piece of fitness equipment that I can’t live without. A simple ball indeed, but with many uses. It can be used not only for abdominal workout, but also total body workout.
In Firm & Flatten Your Abs, David Grisaffi explains the importance of core training. A complete abdominal training should not only focus on working superficial muscles (that gives the six-pack appearance), it must also strengthen and develop the underlying muscles. Strengthening the hidden muscles is crucial to preventing injury and improving physical performance. A core training program decreases the likelihood of back pain, neck pain, incontinence, ruptured disks, torn muscles and strained ligaments.
Your abdominal workout is not limited to crunches, sit ups and leg raises only. There are hundreds of exercises you can do for the core and abdominals. You don’t need fancy gym equipment. Most of the ab exercises in Firm & Flatten Your Abs can be done at home with a stability ball and bench only. A few of the abdominal exercises require cable apparatus which can be replaced with a light dumbbell.
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