Reebok Gym Ball

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	cheap, easy to use (relatively), extremely effective, used for all sorts of training
Disadvantages:	maybe its overall size

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

The Reebok Gym ball is a fantastic cheap piece of gym equipment that will support your training needs in a plethora of different ways. As gym equipment goes, its value in correlation to its effectiveness is second to none.

Gym balls (also known as fit balls, Swiss balls, body balls etc) have been utilised in health and fitness long before their obvious potential were used in gyms. Physiotherapists had been using the balls for years to aid the recovery of a number of different injury's. In particular, they were used in the recovery of back injury's as the ergonomic shape and support allowed the physiotherapist to create focussed core stability exercises.

WHAT IS CORE STABILITY

Ok without getting too scientific, core stability really relates to the deep muscles within the trunk of the spine (in particular the muscles around the lumbar section of the spine at the middle to bottom of your back). The major role of these muscles is to keep us upright, thus it is extremely important that these muscles are strong because any weakness will create the number one health complaint in Britain, a bad back.

The other important issue regarding the core muscles is that ALL movement that occurs in the limbs (arms and legs) causes a contraction in the core muscles, this is the body's natural reaction to stabalise itself. Again if the core muscles are not strong, this can cause problems, not just to the back, but also potentially to the limbs through the unability to stabalise your movements. The core muscles therefore contract to control any dynamic movement of the body.

The Gym ball WILL help to strengthen the core muscles, thus eliminating any problems you have or are likely to have. On a personal level, I have suffered with sciatica for 10 years and this has helped it tremendously by strengthening the muscles around my lower back.

FUNCTIONALITY

So what are you getting for your money? Well they say the best inventions are simple, and this really is as simple as it gets. here are the details

Cool Silver available in 65 cm - suitable for persons 5'6" - 5'10" (166cm - 177cm)*
Anti-burst
Tested to a 300kg weight limit.
Includes pump, DVD and workout booklet.

Now the most important thing regarding the gym ball is to make sure that it is the right size for you. This is achieved by following this simple guide

To calculate:

Take measurement from back of knee to the ground, add 3cm for depression of the ball. The next size ball after this measurement is the size you require.

Example:

Back of knee to ground (A) = 45cm

+ 3cm for depression = 48cm.

Therefore user requires 55cm fitball.

This is important and not many people realise that its important to get the right size, to ensure the balls effectiveness but also its safety. (You wouldn't buy size 6 shoes if your a size 9, this is exactly the same as picking your gym ball).

WHAT DOES THE GYM BALL DO

The use of the gym ball is really endless and I could go into way too much detail in this review. As a short synopsis, the gym ball can be used in strength training, core stability training, flexibility, postural training, cardio training, muscular endurance training, injury recovery/physiotherapy etc etc. Pretty much every aspect of training can been incorporated. Below I've included a few useful websites so if you would like more information on the types of exercises you can achieve with the gym ball, these are a useful point of reference

www.brianmac.co.uk
www.fitness4rugby.com
www.sports-coach.net
www.pponline.co.uk
sportsmedicine.about.com

PRICE

Now my one cost me £15 off of Amazon.com and was the basic package (a 65cm ball, dvd, pump). However the price does range from as low as £10 just for the ball, through to £30 which has a swivel seat and resistance tubes.

In conclusion, The gym ball is cheap, easy to use but most importantly extremely effective. It can be used to train a number of different areas of your fitness, or just be used as a chair to improve posture! My contender for best piece of home gym equipment.

Hope that helps,

Kind Regards,

Logan