Ridgeline Fitness

Welcome to the Ridgeline Fitness Podcast.

Crunches on the Swiss ball offer several advantages over more conventional methods and machines. Using the ball facilitates full flexion and extension of your spine thereby training your abdominals through a full range of motion. Crunches on the ball also promote balance and stability stimulating your deeper core muscles in addition to the prominent rectus abdominus or ‘six-pack’ muscle. When done correctly the Swiss Ball crunch is super effective.

The Swiss ball brings an element of instability to basic exercises like the straight leg bridge. This stimulates and conditions your deep core muscles improving spinal stability. In addition to these small but important joint stabilizer muscles the Straight Leg Bridge also targets larger prime movers in your back, glutes and hamstrings.

Like the side crunch torso twists work the obliques but with a rotational movement. Resistance is created by momentum rather than leverage alone. Therefore increasing the speed increases the resistance and difficulty of the exercise. Torso twists are great for golfers and anyone who wants to enhance the rotational mobility and power.

Back Extensions over the Swiss Ball complement crunches perfectly. Advantages over more conventional equipment include increased activation of the inter-segmental stabilizers of your spine and core muscles in general.

Rollouts are similar to the plank posture in yoga where you isometrically engage your abdominals and core to stabilize and control anterior pelvic tilt thus preventing hyper-extending your lower back.

The Superman or Alternating Superman exercise on the ball is all about precision. This exercise integrates countless muscles in your back and core. Especially the small stabilizer muscles in your spine that attach one vertebra to another thereby stabilizing and supporting your spine from the inside out.

The Knee Tuck or Jackknife is a challenging exercise that works your body from head to toe. The exercise is somewhat similar to Rollouts, requiring your lower abdominals to contract isometrically, stabilizing your spine.

The Spinal Twist or Russian Twist is a great way to loosen up your back and gently work your obliques.

Here are few suggestions for determining the correct size Swiss Ball.

Pelvic Tilts are designed to warm up your lower back and enhance mobility and coordination in your lumbar spine.

In my opinion hamstring curls on the ball beat any hamstring machine I’ve ever used. This exercise precisely targets your hamstrings and also engages your muscles in your hips and back.

Last time we looked at the Hamstring Curl on the ball. A good complement to this exercise is the Quad Extension. The knee extension in this exercise definitely works your quads but also involves the upper body, abs and core.

Push ups using the ball make a great exercise even better. Adding a Swiss Ball to the push up creates an element of instability and extra challenge.

The Lateral Pull will increase your shoulder stability while working your back and core.