Fitness Mad Wobble Board

As you will see from previous reviews I have various items of fitness equipment around the house which I have bought, however one piece of equipment I acquired from a friend was the Fitness Mad Wobble Board, they did not get on with it and had originally bought it to help with an ankle injury but asked if I would like to give it ago, keen to try new things when it comes to fitness I decided to give it a go.

The Fitness Mad Wobble board comes already assembled inside the box, I am unsure exactly what the box looks as when I received the board it did not have the box with it. The board itself is basically a circular plastic disc which is mounted on a small stand which is adjustable, the surface of the disc (the area you stand on) is textured which is designed to help you get extra grip and to prevent the wobble board from slipping from under you, there is a small blue circle in the centre of the board with the Fitness Mad logo on it. There is a small circular stand on the underside of the disc this is adjusted by twisting it, this alters the difficulty level, the stand twists both clockwise and anticlockwise depending on whether you wish to have the board at a higher or lower setting. The board is about 40cm in diameter and works on angles between 19 and 23 degrees, this is altered by twist the stand or rocker on the bottom of the board, the more you screw the stand out the high the angle of the board meaning the greater the difficulty.

Benefits of the Wobble Board
There are many benefits of the Fitness Mad Wobble board which I have discusses below

PHYSICAL BENEFITS - Use of the wobble boards can benefits many areas of the body in a physical way including strengthening the ankles and knees as well as increasing core strength and stability, this can also help with sports injuries. By increasing the length of time on the wobble board can help to improve your endurance levels, this can also help to improve your performance during other sports activities.

MENTAL BENEFITS - Physical therapists have used wobble boards for years to help with developmentally delayed children. Sessions on a wobble board helps to force the left and right hand sides of the brain to communicates and work together in order to maintain balance when on the board, this helps to increase sensory integration as well as hand writing skills and reading skills by making all areas of the brain work together.

REHABILITATION - The wobble board has been used to help with ankle injuries during physiotherapy sessions and to strengths damaged and injured joints. Sessions on the wobble board can also help to prevent injuries by strengthening key areas that are prone to injury during sports activities.

There are many benefits of using a wobble board as part of your exercise regime, I also find that sessions on the wobble board, even just doing the simpler exercises helps with the muscle tone in my legs rather than having to use heavy weights up the gym which just seem to build the muscles up, a few minutes on the wobble board regularly can help to keep leg muscles toned. I have noticed a great improvement in my balance and co-ordination skills when on the wobble board, I definitely do not come off of it as much as I use to, it does get easier with practise.

Exercises You Can Do on the Wobble Board
Stand on the wobble board with your feet apart, rotate the board around in a circle so that the edge is continuously in contact with the floor, continue to do this for 2 to 3 minutes

Stand on the wobble board with your feet shoulder width apart, keep the board level so that the edges do not touch the floor at any time, again do this for 2 to 3 minutes.

Stand on the board with your feet shoulder width apart, rotate the board around in a circle without letting the edges touch the floor at any time.

Stand on the board with 1 leg and rock the board backwards and forwards and then side to side, repeat for a minute or 2 and the swap legs

Stand on the wobble board on one leg and rotate the board around in a circle for about a minuet and then repeat with the other leg.

There are other exercises that can e done on the wobble board, all of which are designed to help improve your core stability and balance, I also find that using the wobble board helps to improve the strength and muscle tone in my legs as well as core muscles which help with stability and co-ordination. All of these exercises can be made easier to more difficult depending on how far out you unscrew the rocker/ stand of the Fitness Mad Wobble board, personally I started off with the board at the smallest angle with the stand screwed in as far as it goes. once I feel comfortable with a exercise at a particular angle I increase the difficulty level by screwing the stand out a bit further thus increasing the angle of the board which makes it a little bit more unstable, this means you have to work even harder to keep the board steady and perform the exercise you are trying to do. If you want to make the exercises even more difficult try doing them with your eyes shut, I have tried this a couple of times but very unsuccessfully I usually end up over balancing, this is something that will take more practise.

Price
As I said I got given my Fitness Mad Wobble board, but I have asked my friend how much she paid for it and where it came from, this one in particular cost £13.99 and came from Amazon, however they can be bought from other online sports shops as well as the Fitness Mad website, however I have noticed that they are more expensive from the official website and Amazon is the cheapest place I have seen them being sold. Personally I think that £13.99 is a fair price for the wobble board, however I do not think I would pay a lot more for it, although I do use the board on occasions, it is not something I use regularly enough to pay a lot of money for.

I would recommend the wobble board as it really does help with improving stability of the core muscles as well as the strengthening and toning of leg muscles, however I do not use it as much as some of my other fitness equipment. I think that the Fitness Mad Wobble board can be bought at reasonable prices (at Amazon) but you do need to look around, personally I would not pay a huge amount of money for it as I do not use it enough to justify spending out a lot of money on one (although mine was free) I definitely think it would be good for someone with a leg or ankle injury as it really would help to build the muscle strength in the injured area. They are very easy to use and the difficulty can be altered by simply twisting the rocker on the bottom of the board, it is also small enough to easily store which is a real benefit. Overall I would recommend the Fitness Mad Wobble Board, but I would shop around to find them at a reasonable price.