Using fitball exercises to lose belly fat

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Today it is difficult to find a girl who would be completely satisfied with her physical shape and appearance. Many women who want to lose weight resort to all sorts of methods to improve their figure: diets, grueling workouts, fasting, breathing exercises, etc. One of the effective ways to combat excess weight includes exercises on a fitball for weight loss. And if you read reviews about this method that are replete with the Internet, you can note that many girls were able to get rid of fat deposits in such a short period of time.

Exercises on a fitball for losing belly fat

A little about the Swiss ball

The Swiss ball, which is what the familiar fitball is called, is a large ball made of rubber. Fitball sizes range from half a meter to eighty-five centimeters in diameter.

The very first Swiss ball in the world appeared at the end of the 20th century, but only then it was used not for weight loss, but as a medical item to cure many diseases. A little later they started using fitball for weight loss. Today it is difficult to imagine at least one fitness club without this sports equipment.

Training with a fitball helps you get rid of excess weight, gives your body beautiful and graceful lines, removes cellulite and brings a lot of other equally useful benefits. The price of the sports equipment itself is not that high, but at the same time it can replace a huge number of other, more expensive exercise equipment. Full-fledged training complexes are carried out with a fitball, the purpose of which is both to combat excess weight and to maintain the general physical condition of the person who exercises with this ball.

Why exercises with a fitball are so effective

If you want to exercise with a fitball for weight loss, then you will probably be interested in the advantages of this sports equipment, or more precisely, why this Swiss ball is so popular among people actively working on weight loss. Benefits of exercises with a fitball for weight loss:

1. Improving the functioning of the vestibular apparatus. Beginners note that during the very first training sessions with the ball it is very difficult for them to stay on the sports equipment. This is due to disruption of the vestibular apparatus. But, if you regularly exercise with a fitball, you can learn to balance and maintain balance, which helps improve movement coordination.
2. Involvement of all muscle groups. Even if you don’t do complex body movements on the fitball, you use several muscle groups. A ball that constantly tries to elude you forces you to engage one or another muscle group to maintain balance. It is these body movements that activate the process of losing weight in the most problematic areas, including the abdomen, sides and inner thighs.
3. Posture alignment. Exercises on a fitball for weight loss are characterized by two types of load: static and aerobic. According to research, the combination of these types of loads helps strengthen posture.
4. Strengthening the ligamentous apparatus. If you systematically practice with a ball, no matter whether you jump on a fitball at home with a child in your arms or train under the strict guidance of a trainer in the gym, you can make your ligaments and tendons strong. Namely, muscle strength depends on them.
5. Development of flexibility. Gymnastics with a Swiss ball helps develop and lengthen muscle tissue. Thanks to this property of the muscular system, the flexibility of the entire body of the training person is ensured.
6. Energy consumption. Active exercise with regular tension of muscle tissue ensures successful burning of fat deposits in “problem” areas of the body. Fat is removed from the abdomen, thighs, sides and legs.
7. The fitball is made from a special rubberized material, thanks to which it is endowed with excellent shock-absorbing properties. And this, in turn, helps relieve muscle tone and reduce the level of stress on the spinal column and joints. Using exercises with a fitball for weight loss, you can reduce the likelihood of injury.
8. Availability of classes. Apart from the fact that you can exercise with a fitball even at home, saving money on visiting fitness clubs, exercises with this type of ball are available even to people who suffer from varicose veins. And all because the exercises involve the absence of heavy loads on the legs.
9. Exciting workouts. If we compare fitness classes with workouts that involve a fitball, the former are significantly inferior to the latter. And all because training with a Swiss ball brings much more pleasure - the sports equipment makes it more fun and exciting.
10. The benefits gained from regular exercise during the training process help to build and tighten the abdominal muscles, thighs and buttocks, which from the moment of training will not be depressing with their saggy appearance. Well, naturally, the sides that become so hated will disappear, as if they never existed.
11. Achieving a set goal in a relatively short period of time. By spending only three days a week on exercise, regardless of whether you exercise at home or in a fitness center, you can achieve good results.
12. Possibility of combining fitball and other types of training. If you work out with a Swiss ball and at the same time visit the gym from time to time, you can achieve amazing results.

I would like to note that a fitball is not a magical exercise machine from a TV store, with the help of which you will be able to get a luxurious body without making the proper effort. Proper and balanced nutrition, active physical life, elimination of bad habits - only in addition to these components can you achieve good results.

Fitball: losing weight and getting rid of cellulite

Fitball is a special gymnastic ball with which you can diversify your workouts. Undoubtedly, many of us have already tried it in action and can confirm its positive effect on figure and health . For example, in the article “Fitness Ball,” Olga Sympaty recommends that you definitely get a fitball for use at home.

For those who have not yet managed to purchase it, the women's website sympaty.net will tell you how to choose the right fitball and how it helps you lose weight , and for fitball fans, we will once again remind you of its advantages and give several effective exercises for problem areas.

The benefits of exercising on a fitball

Under the weight of the body, the ball, made of a special material, bends, thus relieving tension in the muscles of the body and reducing the load on the spine and joints. As a result, there is a minimal risk of injury and more effective training of the desired muscle groups.

Since the fitball is unstable, it helps improve coordination and flexibility of the body. In addition, when balancing on a fitball, you use many muscle groups , which affects your figure, making it fit, as well as strengthening your spine .

Fitball is ideal for those who suffer from varicose veins , because when performing exercises, the load on the legs is either practically absent or extremely small.

Just one look at this big bright ball lifts your spirits! It is known that some colors have a positive effect on the psyche , for example, green - calms, red - encourages action. Keep this in mind when choosing your ball color.

And exercises on a fitball generally bring only pleasure! The workouts are more fun and interesting than regular fitness classes.

How to choose a fitball?

Before you go to the store for a fitball, decide what diameter you will be looking for. Fitball balls have a diameter from 45 to 95 cm.

The ball you need depends on your height , for example, if your height is from 152 to 165 cm, the diameter of the ball should be 55 cm, if you are 165 to 185 cm tall, it should be 65 cm. The easiest way to make sure whether a particular ball is suitable for you is to sit on it . At the same time, if your legs are bent at a right angle , this is what you need!

Don't worry that the fitball may explode or burst. This will not happen because the ball is equipped with a special anti-burst safety system , so when the slightest hole appears, the ball will slowly release air.

Please note that when buying a fitball you will also need a pump , although if you have a bicycle pump at home, that will do.

Perhaps these are all recommendations for choosing a fitball. I hope you decide on the color yourself

How a fitball helps you lose weight and get rid of cellulite

Since the fitball is unstable and tends to slip away, the body is under tension throughout the entire workout , which burns more calories compared to regular, static exercises.

This way you not only lose weight, but also tone all your muscles . It turns out that there are double benefits from training on a fitball - the exercises themselves allow you to tighten your abs, get rid of sagging buttocks and upper legs, and balancing on a fitball also uses other muscles that you do not pay attention to. The result is a toned body without much effort and in a shorter time.

With all this, if you exercise on a fitball regularly and purposefully train your problem areas, you can get rid of cellulite . Just don’t think that a fitball is a magic wand. Exercise alone will not help much in the fight against cellulite if you don’t change your eating habits and ignore other ways to get rid of cellulite. As they say, all means are good to achieve a goal, so use them in conjunction with fitball training.

And to speed up the process pump up the fitball more , since the more unstable it is, the more difficult it is to perform the exercises.

Also replace your favorite sofa, chair in front of the computer and chair with a fitball . Now, every time you sit on the ball, you will try to maintain your balance, and since this involves all muscle groups, the result - a slender, toned body - will not be long in coming

Exercises for fitball

In conclusion, here are some simple and effective exercises on a fitball that will help you diversify your workouts:

Exercise for hips and abs

Lie on your back, stretch your legs and squeeze the ball with your feet. While holding the ball, slowly lift your legs up , then slowly lower them. You can raise your legs either strictly vertically or at an angle of 45 degrees.

Exercise for the inner thighs

1. Lie on your side and squeeze the ball with your feet again. Now raise your straightened legs while holding the ball. After a few repetitions, switch sides.

2. Starting position standing . Alternatively, sit with your hands behind you. Squeeze the ball between your knees (if you are sitting, bend your knees). Now squeeze the ball with your feet as hard as possible. Repeat several times.

Exercises for the buttocks

1. Lie on your stomach on the ball , with your hands on the floor. Slowly raise and lower your straightened legs , feeling how your buttocks tighten. To complicate the exercise, lie on the ball with your feet, and also press your straight arms into the floor.

2. Lie on the floor on your back, with your legs bent at the knees and placed on a fitball. Now slowly raise and lower your pelvis , tensing your buttocks.

Leg exercises

Sit on the ball, keep your back straight. Now raise your leg bent at the knee and straighten it, freeze for a few seconds, bend your leg again and return to the starting position. Repeat with the other leg.

Exercises for the abs

1. Lie with your back on the fitball, hands behind your head, legs bent at the knees and standing on the floor. Pump up your abs and do crunches, that is, stretch your right elbow to your left knee. Raise your torso 45 degrees.

2. Lie on the floor, place your legs bent at the knees on a fitball. Hands behind your head, and as in the previous exercise, stretch your right elbow to your left knee and vice versa. Also try to reach your knees with your elbows, pumping up your regular abs. The exercise is performed slowly.

3. Dilute the standard abdominal exercises with the following: lie on your back, put one leg on the fitball, and perform circular movements , trying not to touch the ball.

Hand exercises

1. Place your feet on the fitball, and press yourself to the floor with straightened arms and face down. Start doing push-ups . Moreover, the closer the ball is to the tips of the legs, the more difficult the exercise is.

2. Sit on the floor, hug the ball, holding it in front of you. Squeeze the ball from both sides.

Exercise for arms and hips at the same time

Place your knees on the fitball and place your hands on the floor, face down. Now gently grab the ball with your knees . You need to do push-ups while squeezing the ball with your knees.

The women's site sympaty.net wishes you a slim body and fun workouts!

—— Author — Khoronzhevskaya Evgenia, website

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The right ball is the key to successful training

As in all other sports, the size of the sports equipment is of considerable importance. An athlete will not run in spikes that are larger than his feet, just as a boxer will not enter the ring with gloves that are too big for him. The same situation applies to fitball.

Surely most people don’t even know that the size of the ball itself affects the results of training. Therefore, before you buy a fitball from sporting goods, you need to know how to choose the right sports equipment.

Choose the right projectile

So, when choosing a fitball, you need to pay attention to the following nuances:

• gymnastic ball size;
• presence of handles and massage relief;
• color.

In turn, the size of the Swiss ball is selected depending on the height of the training person. Using the sign that we bring to your attention, you can easily choose the fitball size that suits you.

Having selected the right size ball, take it and sit down on it. The fitball should be as comfortable as possible. Each leg should touch the surface of the floor with a full foot, bent at the knee at an angle of 90°, that is, the thigh is parallel to the floor.

Your future sports equipment is necessary not only to become a weapon in the difficult fight against extra centimeters on your body. This ball was created to entertain, for example, a child and bring the joy of playing with him. It is for this reason that you should choose a fitball based on color. Today, the manufacturers of this gymnastic ball produce it in bright colors, even if you came across a gray ball in the store, it will still attract with its shiny appearance.

If you give preference to the color green, it can relax and calm your nervous system. Whereas a red ball will excite the subconscious and literally force you to get up from your favorite place and start training. Yellow can lift your spirits, purple can motivate you, and chic purple can awaken passion. You will understand which color contributes to your training just by looking at the ball.

Handles on a fitball are only necessary if you plan to do jumping exercises on it. The place for the “fifth point” on Swiss balls is usually covered with a massage relief, which enhances the pleasure of training with the ball.

As for the degree of pumping of the fitball. If you plan to actively engage in sports using this sports equipment, then it is better to inflate it as much as possible (but do not overdo it, because, like a balloon, it can burst). By inflating it more than usual, it will become more elastic, making it much more difficult to jump and stay on it, which means that you will have to make more effort to control the fitball. Thanks to this approach, achieving the desired weight loss result will be much easier.

Exercises with fitball

Exercises with a Swiss ball are popular among girls who, for one reason or another, do not have the opportunity to visit fitness centers. Exercising on a fitball for weight loss helps get rid of extra centimeters in the abdominal area. Moreover, many women use this ball to tighten their abdominal muscles after childbirth. By watching video tutorials, photos and picture lessons that can be found on the Internet, it is very easy to learn how to do exercises with a fitball. We bring to your attention a set of exercises for beginners, which contains effective and at the same time easy-to-perform movements that will help you master fitball exercises.

Exercise No. 1

We lie down on the floor (for convenience, you can lay out a fitness mat) and bend your legs at the knee joint so that a right angle is formed between your calves and thigh. In this case, you should clamp the sports equipment between your ankles. We lift the ball with our legs and pull it towards us. Exercises of this kind are done at an accelerated pace. If you have just started mastering fitball exercises, then 10-15 repetitions in one approach are enough. More experienced athletes can try to do it 100 times. As for the number of repetitions, there should be at least two, but in the future it is best to reach five.

This is the main, so to speak, starting exercise, which is included in any set of exercises on fitball. This exercise begins your morning exercises and warm-up.

Exercise No. 2

Remaining in the starting position, we clamp the sports equipment between the legs and feet. Then we lift it up, alternately turning it to the right and then to the left. From the very first lessons we do 40 repetitions in 2 approaches. A little later, when you get used to training of this kind, we gradually increase the repetitions to 50 times, and the number of approaches to 5.

The benefits of this exercise will be tangible and noticeable immediately after the first sessions. You will feel that during this exercise on the fitball the oblique abdominal muscles are working.

Exercise #3

Without changing the starting position, we place the legs on the fitball so that each of the legs touches the sports equipment with the calf part. We remove our hands behind our heads or place them on our chests. We perform body lifts, but not full lifts; we tear off only the head and shoulder blades from the floor surface. At the first stages of training, we do 3 sets of 20 repetitions, and after, after 2-3 weeks, we increase the number of repetitions to 50 times, and approaches to 5.

Effective exercises with a fitball are when you perform them continuously, forcing your abs to be tense the entire time. Only training of this kind will bring results.

Exercise #4

We rest our elbows on the ball, our face looks at the surface of the floor, and the line of our legs is straight. We rest our toes on the floor and try to keep our back straight. Without bending your legs and back, we fix the position. The first and second workouts are adaptation ones, so you need to hold the plank for 30 seconds. Over time, we gradually increase the time for fixing the position to two minutes.

It is very important that your back does not sag downwards and does not rise up. The line of the legs and back should be smooth and even. If you do not adhere to this recommendation, then the effectiveness of the exercises is reduced to a minimum, in any case, this is stated by those who have lost weight with the help of a fitball.

Exercises of this kind are highly complex, so take the exercises seriously and try to be extremely careful. Otherwise, the risk of injury increases significantly. If you do not fully understand the principle of performing this exercise, then watch the video lesson, from which you will certainly gain useful information.

Exercise #5

We rest our hands on the surface of the floor, our face continues to look down, and we lie down on the sports equipment with the top of our legs. We try to maintain balance with the help of our hands, then, without bending our legs at the knee joint, we raise them as much as possible. So, one lifting and lowering of the legs to the starting point is considered one repetition. The first workout is a trial workout, so 3 sets of 10 repetitions will be enough. Further, when gymnastics of this kind becomes an everyday activity for you, we increase the number of approaches to 5 and repetitions to 25.

One important point. For the training to be as effective as possible, it is important to ensure that the muscles of the buttocks and lower back are involved in the process of lifting the legs.

Exercise #6

We sit on the fitball, keep our body straight, and rest our feet on the floor surface. Next, we gently roll on it so that the ball is under the back. In this case, the legs do not touch the sports equipment, and the handles need to rest on the floor. While inhaling, we bend over on the ball, lower our head as low as possible to the floor surface, and as we exhale, raise our torso towards our legs so that the abdominal muscles are activated. It is enough to do 15 repetitions. As soon as the training becomes a daily activity for you and does not cause difficulties, gradually increase the number of repetitions to 30.

The main nuance is that the exercise must be done smoothly and slowly. Jerking and haste can lead to injury and reduce the effectiveness of the exercise.

Exercise No. 7

We rest our backs of our thighs on the sports equipment. We rest our hands on the floor surface so that the back is directed downward. Then we roll the fitball from the hips to the toes. At the first training sessions we do 10 repetitions, and over time we increase the number of repetitions to fifty.

Exercise #8

We sit on the ball, keep our back flat and straight, and rest our feet on the floor surface. Now move your buttocks to the right, and then to the left so that the ball moves with you. This movement should be performed without the participation of the muscles of the legs and torso. At first it will be enough if you do 30 repetitions, and over time you need to increase their number to 50.

Thanks to this exercise, the oblique abdominal muscles are pumped.

Don’t even think that you will succeed in all the exercises the first time, so don’t be discouraged if you fail. Try, try, you must learn how to use the Swiss ball correctly for weight loss. If you carefully read the reviews of people who have achieved good results using a fitball, you will understand that the most difficult stage of the training was the first training. But over time, you will learn to use this sports equipment in the fight against excess fat deposits. Ideally, training should be carried out five times a week, but if for some reason you are unable to devote that much time to training, then three training sessions per week will be enough to achieve the desired result.

How to choose the right fitball

A fitball is a sports ball designed for intense physical training. It is used in group classes at the club or for home training. It first appeared in Switzerland and was used as an additional accessory for exercise during rehabilitation after a number of serious illnesses. Over time, it became very popular, and today fitball for weight loss is used in most training programs.

For training to be safe and useful, the ball must be chosen correctly. Fortunately, today there is a countless variety of fitballs on the sporting goods market - from Chinese to brands from the most famous manufacturers. But is it worth overpaying for the brand? Not always. The main thing is that the ball is durable and suitable for you.

Please note the following before purchasing:

• Fitball size. Depends on height; usually the packaging indicates a size scale describing the relationship between height and diameter of the ball. If the fitball is inflated, then it is quite easy to determine - just sit on the ball. In this position, the feet of both legs should be firmly on the floor, and the thighs and shins should form a right angle and be parallel to the floor.
• Ribbed surface. Provides additional grip of the fitball to the floor and prevents it from slipping. It is easier to maintain balance on such a ball, and if it “runs away”, it will not roll too far.
• Rubber density. A very important point on which safety directly depends. You will have to not only sit on the ball, but also jump, and if it suddenly bursts, you can get injured. Good manufacturers use materials that prevent the rubber from tearing even if punctured.
• Environmental friendliness of materials. Cheap rubber exercise balls stink of chemicals and may contain toxic substances. During active training, the body is warmed up and the pores are open. When in contact with the skin, toxins can easily penetrate it, gradually poisoning the body. By the way, low-quality, unstable paint can ruin clothes.
• Availability of handles. Not always a plus. A regular ball will still be more versatile, on which you can perform any exercise. It is more convenient to jump on a ball with handles. But in most cases they will get in the way.

It is important not to confuse a fitball with a medicine ball. This is another type of ball, also designed for training. The medicine ball has other tasks - it is an element of power load, is similar in diameter to a basketball and has a fairly significant weight (up to several kilograms).