Stability Ball Cardio Exercises

You can use a stability ball to do exercises that not only strengthen your core and other postural muscles, but also to increase your heart rate so that is equivalent to running on a treadmill or other traditional cardiovascular exercises. The unstable environment requires your body to recruit more motor units to produce strength and stability, which puts more work upon your muscles, joints and heart. Do the exercises in a circuit-training manner, where you do five to eight exercises with no rest between sets.

Ball Squats

This full-body exercise teaches you to squat properly by using your deep abdominal muscles to support a tall spine while using your buttocks to control the squat motion.
Place the ball against a wall and lay your lower back against the ball. Place your feet about hip-distance apart and your toes pointing forward. Lower your buttocks as low as you can and stand back up. Do not hunch your back or shoulders or stick your neck out. Squat to the level you feel most comfortable with before going lower.

Leaning Tower

This exercise strengthens your deep abdominal muscles and buttocks while keeping your spine neutral. Do not do this if you have back pain.
Kneel in front of a stability ball and place your hands in a karate-chop position on it. Gently push the ball forward and your body will lean forward. Tighten your buttocks to maintain balance and lean forward by extending your knees. Do not bend your hips or round your back as you do this. Straighten your arms as you go down. When you have lowered to the point where you start to lose balance and form, pull yourself up to the start position.

Ball Pike

The ball pike strengthens your deep abdominal muscles and hips while maintaining a neutral spine.
Begin in a push-up position with your hands on the ground and your shins on the ball. Pull your ball toward your hands with your feet and push your tailbone up to the sky. Your spine should remain neutral and keep your legs straight. Now your feet should be on the ball. Gradually return to start position and repeat the movement.

Ball Push-ups

You can do two versions of ball push-ups: hands on ball, which emphasizes upper body stability, or legs on ball, which emphasizes lower body stability.
The hands-on-ball version stabilizes and strengthens your shoulder joints and upper back and trunk muscles that keeps your spine from moving and turning. You can do this with the ball against a wall for support, or with your feet on a chair or bench so that your body is parallel to the ground.
For the legs-on-ball version, start in the same position as the ball pike exercise. If you can do this exercise with little difficulty, progress to putting your toes on the ball. Keep your spine neutral at all times. Do not hunch your shoulders or round your back.

Ball Scaption

This exercise series focuses on strengthening the muscles in and around your shoulder blades, and increasing shoulder joint mobility. You should use no weights to start before adding light weights. To do a stability ball scaption, where you pull your shoulder blades, lie on a stability ball on your stomach with your chest off the ball and your feet slightly apart against a wall for support. Your spine and hips should be in a straight line when viewed from the side. Then, exhale and lift both arms above your head with your thumbs pointing up. Hold the position for one deep breath and lower your arms down in front of you. Lift your arms up again and reach up to make a letter Y with your body. Hold the position for one deep breath and lower your arms down. Finally, lift your arms up behind your body and externally rotate your arms and point your thumbs up. You should feel a stretch in your anterior shoulders. Repeat the pattern for three to four rounds.