Let’s Got That Posture Fixed, and Core Strong!
Core strength and posture go hand in hand to keeping your back, neck, and spine overall healthy and pain free. By the end of this article, we are going to address 7 ways you can use a stability ball to improve your core strength and posture to keep you moving better in life. These exercises will target all areas of your core and posture, so make sure you do don’t miss one, otherwise their might be some missing links to your strength! If you aren’t sure how to do the exercises safely, I would highly recommend watching the video above.
Stability Ball Exercises for Core Strength and Posture
Around The Worlds
Once you have your stability ball (which we will link below), you can start out with some around the worlds. By sitting on the ball, and slowly allowing your torso to tip forward, and then move all the way around in a 360 degree circle, you will challenge all aspects of your core strength. I really like this drill because it constantly changes the muscle working the entire time. Go slow throughout the movement, making sure you repeat on both directions.
Modified Sit to Stands
Once you’ve finished that exercise, you can try out some modified sit to stands, practicing sitting on the ball, and standing back up numerous times. What will challenge your core and posture in particular, will be the fact that you will actually sit back all of your weight into the ball on the way down, before standing back up. Try to keep your back straight, and your chest up for equal core work.
Side Bends
We will move back to sitting strictly on the ball, for some side bends. By reaching down side to side on the ball, we are going to target our oblique muscles which are often weak. Feel free to add some weight to the side, passing a dumbbell (link below) from hand to hand on both directions. Make sure you aren’t bending forward at all, making this movement come through just the side of your core.
Leg Extensions
Normally, leg extensions without any weight are fairly easy, offering a gentle way to warmup the knees. When doing this exercise seated on a stability ball, you will tremendously increase the work your core needs, in addition to keeping your posture strong.
Marches
If that exercise was too tough, you can try some seated marches on the ball as well. This motion doesn’t take quite as long to complete, making it a little bit easier. And although those movements are great, mastering these last few are the most important for overall core strength and perfect posture.
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Y-Raise Back Extensions
Back extensions on the exercise ball are a great way to improve your low back strength, and posture. The difference between this variation, from other ones I’ve seen online, is that we are going to keep our hands in a “Y” throughout the movement. By doing this, and forcefully pinching our shoulder blades back when we extend our hips up, we will target our lower trapezius muscle greatly. This muscle is usually very weak and can help in improving shoulder mobility and posture.
Glute Bridge Hold
Bridging is a common exercise used to help strengthen your glutes and reduce lower back pain. When putting your feet up onto the stability ball, the exercise gets much more difficult. This is why we will simply be “holding” the position, with our hips extended (squeezing our butt) for about thirty seconds before relaxing and moving on to one of my favorite exercises.
Tabletop Plank
If you have never done a blank on a stability ball, you are in for a treat. The constant instability and change of pressure in the ball, targets your core muscles heavily. When placing your feet behind you, and your hands down on the ball, try to think about keeping your arms nice and straight. If this is too hard, try bringing your feet in a tiny bit.
I’ve Got Some Great News!
If you want even more ways to improve your posture, I think you would enjoy this article we created below. Otherwise, you can follow our daily strength program which can keep your strength in the rest of your body, as well as your core, in check as well.
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