The stability ball exercises gets a bad rap. Gym bros look at it and ponder how many gains can be had with what looks like a beach ball. Some women look at it and think, “I can do abs on that.” Many fitness professionals don’t like it, and some have even attacked it with a screwdriver (true story).
There’s a lot of love or hate for the stability ball, but when programmed and used sensibly, the stability ball is a tool you need in your toolbox. The stability ball will help you get stronger and more resilient against injury, and you’ll have a ball. Sorry, not sorry.
Here we’ll dive into three benefits of training with a stability ball with three exercises you didn’t know you could do with a ball.
Benefits of Stability Ball Exercises
People turn a blind eye to the stability ball because they see it as a useless tool except for abs. But it does have a few essential benefits besides doing endless crunches.
Better Balance: When you sit on a stability ball, you’ll feel your core in a hurry, so imagine what happens when you exercise with it. The most significant advantage of these exercises is that your body engages more muscle to stay balanced.
Increased Intensity Without Weight: The stability ball improves your ability to recruit more muscle without an increase in load. This is because of the greater involvement of your body’s stabilizer muscles to stop your face from meeting the floor.
Reduced Injury Risk: Stability ball exercises, like pushups and ab crunches, increase the activation of core stabilizers which helps provide more excellent resistance to injury.
How to Choose the Correct Stability Ball Size For You
Before getting into the three stability ball exercises below, size matters but doesn’t it always? Stability balls come in three industry-standard sizes: 55 cm, 65 cm, and 75 cm. These sizes indicate the height and diameter of the stability ball when properly inflated.
There is an easy test to determine which size stability ball you should use for most exercises performed on it. Sit on it—that’s right, sit on it. If more or less your thighs are parallel to the ground, that’s the ball for you. If your hips are above or below your knees, it’s either too big or too small.
When performing stability ball planks, push-ups, rollouts, etc., the smaller ball will generally have you closer to the ground to make the exercise more difficult and the taller ball slightly easier. But this depends on personal preference and the length of your arms. Quickly experiment to see which size ball is right for you regardless of the test above.
If you think the stability ball is for weaklings, think again. Here are three stability ball exercises that challenge you in ways you never thought possible.
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Single-leg Hip Extension Hamstring Curl
The stability ball hip extension hamstring curl strengthens the hamstrings in two ways: as a hip extensor and also as a knee flexor, giving you more bang for your hamstring buck. Due to these being performed on an unstable surface, your stabilization demands increase, too, making your muscles work harder without weight.
Benefits: Strengthens the hamstrings in two ways for better muscle-building potential, and this helps to improve hip and core strength.
How to do it: Lying on your back, put one foot on the ball with your opposite leg bent. Then engage your working glute to put your lower back in neutral and come up into single-leg hip extension. With your body in a straight line, curl the ball toward you till your foot is flat on the ball. Slowly reverse the movement and lower your hips to the floor. Reset and repeat.
Programming suggestion: As this is an intense hamstring exercise, pairing it with any of the two exercises on this list works while your hamstrings take a break. Or add them with any floor exercise to make the most of your time while training from the floor. For example:
1A. Single-leg Hip Extension Hamstring Curl: 6-8 reps (each leg)
1B. Single-arm Floor Press: 8-15 reps per side
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Stability Ball Walkout with Pushup
The stability ball walkout with pushups challenges your core, shoulder strength, and balance simultaneously. And that’s just the walkout portion. The decline push-up with your feet on an unstable surface will slow down your push-up for more time under tension. If you thought stability ball pushups were easy, you thought wrong.
Benefits: Puts the chest, triceps, glutes, and core under more time under tension due to the control needed to perform this strenuous exercise.
How to do it: Put the ball underneath your stomach with your hands and feet on the ground. Then take small steps with your hands until your feet touch the back of the ball. With your hands underneath your shoulders, do a push-up, walk your hands back to the ball, and stop when the ball is on your stomach. Reset and repeat.
Programming suggestion: Pairing this with the exercise above makes it a great superset to strengthen the entire body without weight. For example:
1A. Walkout With Pushup: 8-12 reps
1B. Single-leg Hip Extension Hamstring Curl: 6-8 reps per side
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Stability Ball Side Plank
You do and love side planks, right? The stability ball variation will get your attention if you’re tired of performing the same old side plank. The stability ball makes the side planks even more difficult as the ball challenges your balance because your ankles, knees, and hips are not stacked, reducing your stability.
Benefits: This side plank variation leads to a stronger and stiffer core which can better transfer power from your lower to the upper body.
How to do it: Put the stability ball between your legs while on your side and squeeze the ball to keep it in place. Then put your elbow underneath your shoulder and use your opposite hand to get yourself in position. Raise this hand to the ceiling in line with your shoulder, squeeze your glutes and the ball and hang on for dear life.
Programming suggestion: For improved hip mobility, pair this with a hip flexor stretch variation to give those love handle a rest. For example:
1A. Stability Ball Side Plank: 15-30 seconds per side
1B. Half Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch: 30-60 seconds per side
