A golf exercise ball, also known as a stability ball or a Swiss exercise ball, is an inflatable ball used during workouts as an alternative piece of exercise equipment. No matter what your personal goals may be at the gym, you can achieve them quickly and more efficiently substituting the Swiss exercise ball for the conventional exercise bench. Using this inflatable piece of equipment will help you get in-tune with what your body needs and can even optimize your body’s overall health.

Proper Back Alignment

The Swiss exercise ball was primarily used in physical therapy centers to promote proper back alignment. This piece of fitness equipment is used in conjunction with physical rehabilitation programs to relieve back pain by strengthening and developing core body muscles. While in use, the Swiss exercise ball creates balance instability. As a result, your back will constantly maneuver itself to seek stability which will strengthen back muscles and properly align your spine.

Ultimate Abs

Getting the perfect beach body equipped with six-pack abs is finally an achievable goal with the Swiss exercise ball. Because the ball requires your back muscles and abdominal muscles to work together, the exercises you would normally perform on the floor or work bench double in efficiency. Being that there is an element of fun while using this equipment, precise exercise moves that have been created to target this problem area become easier to complete.

Stretching

Exercise styles such as Yoga and Pilates, focus on stretching your muscles which will, in turn, both tone and define them. Using an exercise ball in conjunction with these styles will ease the muscle stretching process because utilizing the ball allows your body to move in and out of stretching positions fluidly. Additionally, stretching your muscles will keep joints from tightening which can limit mobility at a later stage in life.

Core Stability

Core stability exercises can enhance your body’s mobility and flexibility. A bridge between mind and body is created while working these particularly designed exercise moves. Being able to get in-tune with your body can only promote, not hinder, your overall health. Core stability involves all of the muscles of the mid-section and provides you with the support necessary to properly complete activities from minor daily activities to more advanced activities.

Lose Weight and Feel Great

An added bonus to incorporating the Swiss exercise ball to your workout program is the weight loss that accompanies targeting your body’s core. When you perform exercises that strengthen your muscles, body fat is burned in the process. The results are lean, well-defined muscles. Any exercise performed with the ball ensures efficiency which means your workouts will produce better results quickly.

The benefits to using the Swiss exercise ball are vast. The feeling of working out is replaced with a sense of play and the results are amazing. You don’t need to be an expert to perform the moves designed for the ball which allows beginners and advanced users to enjoy the ball equally. The Swiss exercise ball is versatile and valuable despite its inexpensive price tag.



By: Maxx Johnson

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Body Weight Exercise

The push up is one of the most beneficial exercises you can do and you don’t need to buy any expensive exercise equipment. It is the single most effective exercise you can do it you want to improve your level of body fitness. This is because it combines weight lifting, cardiovascular exercise and stretching in one exercise. You don’t need to go a gym to do this exercise because you don’t need a lot of space for it.

For a beginner, doing push ups may be quite difficult because of the many different muscles involved. This type of exercise targets the pectoral muscles, which are in the chest wall and the triceps, which are the muscles in the upper part of your arms. In addition, this exercise also targets the deltoids, the muscles in the round part of your shoulders, the three groups of muscles that run the length of your arm and the muscles that enclose the first eight ribs on both sides of your body. Unless you have been doing a lot of stretching exercises, it is unlikely that your chest and rib muscles have been getting a lot of exercising, which is why you will definitely find some soreness in these areas.

Learning to maintain the proper from in pushups is exercise training in itself. The proper technique involves pushing your body from a prone position on the floor to one where your body is straight and resting only on your fingertips and your toes. When your back muscles contract to keep your back and legs straight, this also affects your abdominal muscles so you give your midsection a workout too.

When you perform repetitions of pushups as part of your normal workout routine every day or every second day, some of the advantages your body will realize include increased growth hormone and overall muscle growth. This helps to tone and firm the muscles, which is why it is a great exercise to engage in when you are trying to lose weight.

Pushups are not a quick fix when you find that you are getting out of shape. You do need to do them on a regular basis to get the best benefit. Like any exercise, when you first start it is important to take things slowly. You should set a goal for yourself that you can work towards and them increase your repetitions each time by one or two until you reach that goal. Then, work at maintaining that number of repetitions to increase your speed before you set a higher number as your goal.

The proper way to do this exercise is:

1. Start with your arms and legs in a plank position, which means your back and legs should form a straight line with your arms and toes resting on the floor.

2. Lower your chest to the floor so that your arms are bent at 90? Keep your legs straight and do not bend them as you lower your body. Your knees should not touch the floor.

3. Now push your body upwards extending your arms until you return to your starting position.

A normal number of repetitions to start with is 8 – 10.



By: Warren Wong

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Body Weight Routine

The push up exercise has been a favorite of the military, police, football and fitness crowd pretty much since time began. Most often when push ups are called for, someone did something wrong and push ups for some reason seem to be the answer. While it is quite fun as an instructor to dish out the push up like candies to a fat kid, push ups should also be used in your body conditioning workout because they flat out work wonders.

Used correctly the push up is an awesome exercise for conditioning as well as strength gains. The reason for this is the scalability of the exercise and the lack of equipment needed to get great results.

When we talk about scalability of the push ups exercise, we are talking about how to start of with an easy version and escalate into a more advanced version, as the body is able to cope. This is the basis of all training for results. Continually imposed increasing demands on the body.

On the easy end of the spectrum of push up exercises we have the standard military pushup. If this is not attainable, you can always do them on your knees first. Once the standard push up exercise can be performed easily, it is only a matter of elevating the feet bit by bit to increase the resistance.

Before you move on to the more advanced versions, make sure that your standard push ups are perfect. This means touching the floor with the body as a solid straight line. Full depth and full extension in a controlled manner. No chopped reps here!

The biggest mistakes made when doing the push up exercise are:

Reaching for the floor with the head before body.

Letting the belly hit first. Having the elbows out very wide and high by the head.

Jacking the bum up like in the yoga downward dog at the top.

Not touching at the bottom.

Chopping your reps short from full extension.

Dive bombing – Coming down and forward on an angle.

Once you can do 50 honest, strict and controlled push ups, it’s time to move on.

On the other end of difficulty scale there is the handstand push up. This particular version of the push up has varying degrees of difficulty also. The holy grail of push up exercises is the handstand push up unsupported. No wall, no spotter, just you, the air and a whole lot of athletic ability.

For those that state a lack of equipment as a barrier to getting stronger, bigger and more athletic, the handstand push up exercise is a clean crisp slap in the back of the head. It’s gymnastics answer to the expensive, less functional and less effective midnight infomercials about the “wonder-whatever”. Here is a simple workout that will get you puffing and pumping based around the standard push up exercise.

Do eight sets of as many push ups as you can in 20 seconds. Rest only 10 seconds between each of the eight sets. Keep it strict and enjoy!



By: Raymond Burton

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Body Weight Fitness

It definitely looks attractive for males to have bigger and well defined chest muscles.  Nevertheless, it takes time and dedication to achieve the chest build that you want to have.  It likewise depends on the amount of time you devote for fitness exercises and the degree of challenge that the routines that you perform can do for your chest.

There are even stimulating machines that you place either on your chest or abs to stimulate the muscles.  Nevertheless, the routines are still far effective and healthy alternatives to get a great shaped chest.

If you want to increase the size of your chest, the push ups are still among the best routines to do.  Here are two of the best varieties of push ups to build chest muscles.

1. The Pushup – The pushup is an excellent way to work on your chest since you can perform the exercise without need of any equipment.  To start the ordinary push up routine, you need to position your hands a shoulder width apart and then position your knees a bit on the back so that the weight is on the hands and remember also to flatten your back.  Your abs should be kept inside and back straight before you start to bend the elbows with your lower body facing the floor until your elbows are positioned at a 90-degree angle.  After that, push back and do the routine for at least three sets of at least ten (10) to sixteen (16) repetitions for every set. 

2. The pushup with medicine ball – Another variation of the push up routine is the push up with medicine ball.  The use of the ball work in two ways, it adds support and at the same time adds challenge to the routine.  The pushup with medicine ball elevates one hand on the ball and adds a degree of difficulty and dynamism on the routine. Likewise, the rolling of the ball from one hand to the other engages the abs. To start the routine, get into the pushup position either on the knees or on the toes but make sure that your body is in aligned and in straight position to avoid injury.  Place one of your hands on the medicine ball and keep the other on the floor. Before you start to do the pushup, get your balance first and then lower down to a pushup position. Push back up and then roll the ball on the floor to alternate with your other hand and then lower than again into pushup.  Make at least three sets of at least ten (10) to sixteen (16) repetitions for every set.

These are just two of the varieties of push up for your chest but there are still many other chest exercises that you can try.



By: Jesse Miller

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Body Weight Routine