Pilates balls are one of the many Pilates tools that you can use to make your Pilates workouts more versatile and effective. A Pilates ball can be used for a wide variety of exercises. PILATESSTAR by Yogistar offers you various Pilates balls in top quality.

What can the Pilates ball / gym ball do? When is it used?

The Pilates ball / gymnastic ball can be integrated into numerous exercises that you may be familiar with without a ball. For example, many seated exercises can be performed on the Pilates ball. The Pilates ball can be used to mobilize the vertebrae, among other things, but that's not all. The Pilates ball can also be placed between the legs to press against it, held between the hands to build up tension between the arms, and much more. Anyone who has experience with yoga and is used to using blocks will be able to compare many types of application with this tool. The Pilates ball is available in different sizes. You can find out more about the Pilates ball here and in the individual product descriptions.

What does the Pilates ball / gym ball do?

When you do exercises on the Pilates ball or exercise ball - whether you are sitting on the ball or lying on it with your stomach or upper back, for example - you need to keep your balance, as the ball is not a solid, static surface, unlike the floor. This not only trains your sense of balance, but also targets the deeper muscles and activates them more than without the Pilates ball.

The Pilates ball is also often used in the rehabilitation area.

Examples of exercises with the Pilates Ball / Gymnastic Ball

To give you a more concrete idea of ​​what exercises can be done with the Pilates ball or gymnastics ball, we have put together a few examples here (this is just a small selection from a wide range!):

• Ball Crunches:
  Lie down on the Pilates ball with your lower back. Put your hands behind your ears and roll your shoulder blades upwards, then come back down again. Avoid straining your neck by always looking straight ahead, not at your knees.
  
  
• “Folding knife”:
  From a prone position, place your feet on the Pilates ball and stretch your arms to lift yourself off the floor. Support your weight with your arms while you exhale and bend your knees. As you inhale, straighten your knees again. You can also do push-ups on the ball. To do this, lie on the ball with your thighs instead of the backs of your feet and use your arms to push yourself up from the floor.
  
  
• Hip rolls
  Here you lie on your back with your arms stretched out on the floor at your sides. Your thighs point straight up, your knees are slightly open and bent at a right angle, and the soles of your feet are resting on the Pilates ball. Starting at the tailbone, roll yourself up vertebra by vertebra so that your hips come up and form a straight line with your upper body. As you breathe out, bring each vertebra back to the mat in reverse order. Important: keep your shoulders and neck relaxed!
  
  
• Harpoon:
  Anyone who tends to have a hunched back should regularly incorporate the following exercise into their training: Lying on your stomach over the Pilates ball, open your legs hip-width apart and support yourself with your toes on the Pilates mat. The arms are at the sides of the Pilates ball and initially hang relaxed downwards. Now first pull the shoulder blades slightly towards each other, then lift the upper body and at the same time stretch the arms backwards and downwards so that the fingers point towards the heels. The body now describes a straight line, the neck is long and the belly button is slightly lifted away from the ball. Return to the starting position while exhaling.
  
  
• Squats:
  If you want to perform particularly effective squats, press the Pilates ball with your back against a wall or hold the Pilates ball with your hands above your head.
  
  
• Ball Pass
  A dynamic exercise that is quite challenging is the ball pass, where you first lie on your back on a Pilates mat and raise your legs with bent knees so that your shins are parallel to the floor. Hold the Pilates ball between your hands. Now raise your upper body and place the Pilates ball between your lower legs. Lower your upper body back onto the mat and stretch your arms backwards. Then raise yourself up again and take the ball between your hands again. Do this back and forth about 10 times...

The Pilates ball or gymnastics ball can also be used for various gymnastic exercises . The Pilates ball can be used to target very different muscle groups (as the small selection of exercises listed above already shows).

In addition to the Pilates Ball / Gymnastic Ball in the range: The Toning Ball

In addition to the regular Pilates or exercise ball with a large diameter, PILATESSTAR also has the toning ball in its range. The toning ball is particularly useful for training the shoulders, arms and upper body, for which it is easier to use than the regular large Pilates ball.
The toning ball is available in different sizes (9 or 12 cm) and different weights (0.5 kg, 1 kg or 1.5 kg).