Fitness Gear Review: Gold's Gym Fitness Ball

Part of any health regimen should be exercise. As part of my effort to get rid of my baby gut, I began collecting fitness gear to be able to facilitate my ability to workout at home. One of the recommendations from my chiropractor was to work with a stability ball to be able to target specific areas with minimal impact. Upon checking out the selection at Wal-Mart, we picked out the Gold's Gym Fitness Ball.

A stability ball can provide an effective low-impact workout, especially in the core area.

The Gold's Gym Fitness Ball "kit" comes with the ball, a ball pump and a sample workout guide. The workout guide gives a variety of exercises to help strengthen the core, arms, legs and butt. As I've gone through it one round is approximately a 15 minute workout. Though this isn't a high cardio workout, there is definitely work being accomplished.

Stability balls come in a variety of sizes based on height ranging from 55cm for those under 5'3" to 75cm for those over 6'. No matter where you look, stability balls are made with anti-burst plastic, which is soft but supportive.

My areas of weakness include the back and core - babies can do some serious damage to abdominals. At first I got my Gold's Gym Fitness Ball for an alternative workout and for back strengthening. For a while I didn't use it a whole lot. Once I discovered that my abs were not changing any, I was advised to do my ab workouts on the ball to create a lower-impact yet effective blast to the core area. This would then decrease chances of damaging the already strained abdominal muscles. In addition to the included workout, I plan to search for more exercises I can add to my ball workout routines to break up any monotony that occurs from doing the same activities over and over.

In addition to strengthening activities, I now enjoy the ball for stretching. Between my hips and ribs, I always have some joints out of place. Taking a few minutes to lay on the stability ball not only helps my core, but also assists my spine and hips to adjust back in place. Saves pain in my back and helps me last longer between chiropractic visits.

Really the biggest problem I have with my fitness ball is storage. The ball was easy to pump up - especially when you have a husband who will do it for you. I enjoy working through the various exercises as they are quick and effective. Some of the instructions are a little vague as they are just simple pictorials. My children like the ball as well. As a testament to it's durability, it has stood up to two rambunctious little ones. The ball I believe ran us around $20, which I would consider a good value for the results.