On The Ball

I took a “Core and More” hour-long exercise class at my health club last night. I never knew you could do so many things with one of those large balls. I’ve only used one to do abdominal work and I usually feel a belly ache the next day. The instructor started with us standing and stretching alongside the ball on the floor. This was easy. Then, we held it in front of us and pushed it up and down and over to the side for awhile. Next, we held onto the wall and put it behind us rolling one straight leg over it while the other went into a kneeling lunge, then switched sides. These were killers to the butt and the legs. One exercise consisted of rolling, stomach on top of the ball, with outstretched hands like a push-up. These seemed to produce the most vocal grunts and groans by my classmates. We also balanced and squeezed the ball between our legs while on the floor in about four different positions. One part of the class, we didn’t use the ball, but we laid on our stomachs to use a flat nylon Frisbee “glider” to push our hands and arms around on the floor making stroke movements similar to swimming. We used some stretchy bands to work our shoulders and arms and used a few weights for our biceps and triceps. It was a good all-around workout and I’m not too sore (yet). I think it’s good to try something different and get out of your comfort zone, so I’ll probably go back next week.