Swiss ball workouts are special, in that all of the exercises work your core muscles even when you're targeting other muscles. You can work out at home with no other equipment. You may know an exercise ball by the name stability ball or exercise ball.
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Full Body Workout
Perform a full-body workout by starting with 10 repetitions of the inner thigh crunch, then 10 ball bridges, 10 ball pushups, 10 back extensions and 10 hamstring curls. End the workout with holding a standing ball squeeze for 30 seconds. The inner thigh crunch works the abs and inner thighs. The ball bridges target the hamstrings, glutes and abs. Ball pushups work the chest, arms, shoulders, back and abs. The back extension works the back and shoulders. The hamstring curls work the thighs and abs. The inner thigh squeeze strengthens the lower back, abs, hips and inner thighs.
Core Workout
Swiss balls work the core muscles twice as much as exercises on the floor. The actual movements are almost the same, but balancing on the ball increases the challenge. For a complete core workout, do three sets of the following exercises: eight to 12 balance pushups, 10 to 12 bridge hamstring curls, five to eight hand-to-foot ball passes and eight to 10 knee tucks. These exercises strengthen not just your abs, but your lower back and hips, too.
Swiss Ball Free-Weight Workout
Swiss balls workouts also may incorporate any free weights you have. The Swiss ball can be the base of the workout. Instead of using an exercise bench to do dumbbell exercises, use a Swiss ball. You can do dumbbell chest flyes for the pecs, dumbbell ball rows for the lats, seated dumbbell shoulder raises for the deltoids, seated dumbbell bicep curls, seated dumbbell French presses for the triceps and dumbbell ball lunges for the legs and glutes. If you do not own dumbbells, use water bottles, wrist weights or kettlebells. Perform three sets of eight to 12 reps with the heaviest weight you can safely lift.
Design Your Own Workout
To put together your own stability ball workout, choose one exercise for each muscle group and perform the exercises back to back, starting with exercises for larger muscle groups. Do supersets of opposing muscle groups, such as pairing ball hamstring curls with ball squats so that you target the backs of your thighs and then the fronts. Another example is to do ball crunches and ball back extensions to strengthen the front and back of your waist.
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