Core balls

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A core ball is called by many names.  Instability Ball, Off-Balance Ball, Swiss Ball, or Engage All Your Core Muscles Ball would be more appropriate. You can find them in the Core Ball section of the Logical Weigh Loss Shop.

A Core Ball Buyers Guide

It is important to get a ball that is right for your size. Here is a basic guide: you will want to get a ball 55 cm for someone 4’11″ to 5’4″, 65 cm for 5’5″ to 5’11″, and 75 cm for people 6′ to 6’7″. Be sure to buy one with a pump (it took me about 5 minutes to blow mine up, so I got a forearm workout in addition to the core workout).  Some come with DVDs but its almost not necessary as there are tons of resources to find exercises.

Core Ball Exercises on the Web

Mayo Clinich Slide Show

Ask Men Top 10 Fitness Ball Exercises

Pysio Ball Exercises for Your Core

I’m sure there are a ton on YouTube

The thing that got me is how much I was sweating after doing a short work out. This appears to be working!

Now the other thing is why did I buy one? Well in her Book Never Say Diet Chatnel Hobbs used one (and shoe lost 200+ lbs) and in his Book Are You Ready Bob Harper from the Biggest loser was using one. So since I’ve owned every other piece of exercise equipment, why not try this. The only down side is storage (as its big and will definitely not fit under the bed). The one thing about seeing these exercises in these books is that READING about the exercises does not make you thin.

Cool New Podcast “Beyond Diet”

I found a new podcast in iTunes called “beyond Diet by Keith Klein. Man he has some great points. Items such as if we have a bad day its like getting a flat tire. We may feel like we should just “blow off the day” and eat. He says this is like getting out and seeing the flat tire, and slashing the other three tires.  His website is www.eatingmanagement.com

My Fitness Coach for Nintendo Wii

This should not be confused with My Weight Loss Coach for Nintendo DS (which is getting fair reviews). I kept reading about how great this game is. Then I met someone online who actually has it. Here is what she said,

“I just got the My Fitness Coach ‘game’ today and I have to comment on it. This is by far the coolest workout game I have ever played. First of all it’s much more like an interactive workout video.

The trainer ‘Maya’ guides you through a fitness test first which involved, jumping jacks (brutal), modified push ups, squats, and crunches. She then suggests a plan for you based on the info you put in weight and measurements and results from fitness test.

Today I did a 15 minute upper body workout with her and I think I may go back and try 15 minutes of straight cardio. With absolutely no equipment right now she has my back and chest muscles feeling worked! She also asks approx. 3 times during your workout how it’s going, your available answers are No Sweat, I’m working hard or Too Hard, she then will adjust your next workout with her accordingly in the appropriate area.

Anyway just had to comment about how awesome this game is!!!

UPDATE *****

So I needed to hit my calories burned for today so I did 15 min of cardio with her. WOW was it good. It was at the perfect level for me. It was hard but not so hard that I couldn’t push myself to do it.
I also did a 1/2 hour of Yoga with her which was wonderful. A little tricky at first but overall a great program. Yoga doesn’t offer you the option of saying it’s too hard but after having done Yoga on the Wii Fit this seemed like a natural progression.”

Favorite Workout Music

We got a tip from Joan who says she loves Blink 182′s “Feeling This” as “It just gets her going.

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