Now Im not against using an exersicise ball for certain purposes, training your ABS seems to be the most popular of them and I believe this is where the exercise ball is best utilized. It allows for a grater range of motion and because of its lack of stability it requires greater recruitment of all the supporting core muscle to keep your body stabilized when working on one.  They are also good for helping a person with balance issues or weak core stabilizer movements. So there are many practical uses for them and I will never deny that. I myself use them ocassionally when Im at the gym.

Now on to what this post is really about, using them for everything. Just because someone has told people that using an exersices ball is beneficial to there core and other stabilizers, they seem to feel like they must be used when doing every exerciser.  This is definitely not the case and using an exercise ball in certain situations can be extremely dangerous and not to mention makes you look ridiculous. One of the worst stories I ever heard was about this guy that was doing dumbbell bench press on one using the 110lb dumbbells and the ball popped. I’m sure you can guess what happened as a result and if not let me just say it wasn’t pretty and required a lot of stitches.

I haven't decided whats worse about the above picture; the fact that the guy on the ball actually believes hes getting some benefit from this or that there is what appears to be a fitness trainer behind him that is the one that has decided to utilize this move for his clients benefit.

So please be careful when you decide to use an exercise ball for something it may have not been designed for and just because you see or hear about someone using it to do some amazing new exercise really think about how much benefit your going to get out of it and make sure its not just someones lame attempt to get more attention in the gym.

If your careful how and when you use an exercise ball you won’t end up like the people in the video bellow

First off this article is my personal opinion on the subject and should not be taken as medical advice. If you have  pre-existing medical conditions and have been told by your doctor to wear one at all times then do it! Also if you just feel more comfortable and safe wearing one then you should stick with it. I’m not going to talk about ditching the belt altogether, but rather using it only when necessary.

If you spend time regularly at the gym you will inevitably spot the lifters with a weight belt obsession. These are the guys that walk into the gym with one on and keep it on throughout the entire workout no matter what body parts or exercises they are working on. They could be doing only chest and triceps for the day, but the belt will never come off. Why? I’m assuming they feel like its protecting them from injury at all times and they assume if its good to use some of the time then its even better to use one all of the time. I believe this couldn’t be further from the truth and I’ll explain my reasoning.

Let me first explain that when used properly to provide extra support to the core(lower back and abdominals) and when performing the right types of lifts a weight belt is an absolute necessity! I can’t emphasize enough that I’m not stating you should discard using the belt for good. I personally use my belt only for heavy compound lifts, such as squats, dead-lifts, and power cleans. Furthermore I only use it when I’m lifting weights above 200lbs and need the provided extra support.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way let me explain to you why you should avoid relying on a belt all the time and what harm it could potential cause. I will also use a real world example to illustrate what I’m talking about. The purpose of the belt is to help stabilize the bodies core which consists of your lower back and your abdominals. Now this can also be achieved to some degree simply by strengthening the muscle of the core and learning how to properly tighten them when performing your lifts. This causes your core to act as its own protective weight belt and internally stabilize the body to help protect it form injury. When you proceed to wear a belt all the time your body does not develop this self protection technique as well, because it has come to rely on the belt to provide the stabilization. Over time your core muscles can actually become weaker due to relying on the belt entirely too much.

Now at this point I’m sure your saying So What?, if I’m in the gym and always have my belt on do I really need my body to develop the technique to help self stabilize my core? Well your probably right as long as you have your belt on you should be safe, but do you wear your belt 24/7 even when your outside the gym? If you do, then you probably have other issues and you don’t  need to worry about the advice in this article. If your like 99% of the rest of gym goers and don’t then you should probably pay attention to this example.

Lets say your at home and a friend comes over and says hey I need you to help me with something. You being a good friend say sure no problem and you proceed to your friends house. Once there you discover a bunch of boxes and realize you have been suckered in to helping your friend move. However your already there so you decide to go ahead and help out. You have spent a few hours packing and moving several boxes and your almost done when your friend says ok just one more thing we need to move this couch. Your tired and ready to be done , but with out giving it too much thought you gladly agree, after all at the gym you regularly dead-lift far more weight than a simple couch and there are two of you doing it, so no problem. You squat down to get a good grip and on the count of three you lift 1-2-3 and then as you begin to lift it happens, you let go of the couch, drop to your knees and cry out ahhh my back. Congratulations you have successfully injured your back attempting to move the couch. Why did this happen, bc your core muscles did not have the support they have grown accustomed to having that was provided by your belt  and without the ability to self stabilize you are far more prone to injury than you would have ever guessed.

Now the example here was simply meant to open your eyes to the dangers of relying on the belt too much, the injury could have resulted from doing pretty much any house hold chores you can think of not just lifting heavy objects. The key is you want your body to learn the valuable techniques of self stabilizing the core and have your body prepared with the ability to use it whenever the right situation comes along. Its not worth risking the possibility of a serious injury , when a simple adjustment to your training style may have made all the difference in the  outcome of the situation.

When I was growing up the only meals I can ever remember eating(excluding snacks) were the core Three; Breakfast,Lunch, and Dinner. That was the norm you eat three times a day and maybe a few snacks in between. Nobody ever questioned it or really thought about changing it. Well what our parents didn’t know is that this is not the most efficient means to take in our daily nutrients.

When you really sit back and start thinking about it, it makes a lot of sense. For example if you have five tasks to complete for the day and you decide to sit down and do them all at once? in an hour? how efficiently do you think you will complete each task? You may rush through them, make mistakes,skip important steps or even have to redo them. Now if you had those same five tasks and decided to do them one at a time through out? the entire day you could spend more time on each one, ensuring that they were completed properly and with the highest level of quality possible. So why would you force your body to try and handle the breaking? down and digestion of large quantities of food all at once,when a much better and efficient method would be to give it several small quantities of food spread through out the entire day. Its easier for our bodies to properly utilize all the nutrients if we give it smaller meals to digest.

Not only are several smaller meals more efficient for your body, but it also triggers your body to store less of the nutrients as fat. Protein, fat and carbohydrates are the sources where your body goes for energy. When its not getting fresh supplies of these nutrients it It will attempt to hold on to as much extra nutrients(as fat) as possible to ensure the body can continue to function properly when no more energy sources are available. The body has this built in survival mechanism that causes it to store nutrients as fat when its not sure if more food will be provided for break down.? So when you go long periods through out the day without eating you are essentially sending the signal to your body that it could be on the verge of starving.? When you eat more often typically every 2-3 hours you reassure your body that it will constantly have a fresh incoming source of nutrients for it to use? and there is really no need for much of it to be stored as fat. Therefore this will allow your body to break down and use the food that you digest more completely and efficiently and the end result is your bodies metabolism will be naturally elevated. Your metabolism is what determines how many calories your body is able to burn each day. So having it elevated will help you stay leaner even without a lot of extra cardio.

If you are still only eating three times a day and your not getting the kind of results you have been looking for maybe its time you make a change. You don’t have to eat seven to eight meals like I do , but you should definitely try adding? a few more into your meal plan and see how it works out.