Plyoball Training - Exercises With Plyoballs To Build Strength

I want to help you use those plyoballs that you see lying around your gym. They are a really cool piece of exercise equipment which when used right can help you excel in your exercise program and results. These balls are today's version of medicine balls and have become very popular. Many people use them at home for in home workouts finding them easily stored and useful for more than just a weight. They vary in size and weight but are soft so they are safer than a dumbbell in that aspect.

There are various fitness applications to this tool. Elite athletes, injury rehab and injury prevention are excellent candidates for using these handy plyoballs. They can be a weight, agility tool, coordination too, skill tool, balance tool and a general conditional tool for the everyday exerciser.

Holding out the plyoball while doing walking lunges is one way to go but then you can also twist left then right on each step of that walking lunge and really involve your core.

Performing pushups with one hand on a plyoball is excellent for conditioning and balance. You can toss the ball to the left do a push up with the left hand on the ball then toss it to the right and do the same, repeating this for your required reps. Use a ball under each hand during your push up, and now you really have some balance training happening.

Holding a plyo ball while doing crunches on the floor or on the body ball will give you some intensity to exercises you would probably already find easy. Crunches on the ball can be notched up by holding a plyoball out and on the down phase bring it back like a pullover then up and into a crunch. This hits your whole core.

Holding the plyo ball and performing a front delt raise while doing a squat will really get your heart rate up. You can bring it right overhead if you like.

Holding the plyo ball during a balance board or extreme board exercise is a great use and if you are good at balancing on the extreme board you can hold the plyo ball and go into a squat while keeping balanced.

Plyometric jumps are heightened by holding a plyo ball while you do the jumps. Drop Jump, Box Jumps, Squat Jumps, Tuck Jumps, Lunge Jumps and various other plyometric drills will work very well with the plyo ball.

Partner or team training can use these plyoballs for tossing and bounce drills since they do bounce! Standing back to back with a person and passing it around clockwise then counterclockwise uses the core. Passing the plyo ball while 2 or more people are balancing on equipment challenges the exercise better.

Hyper extensions can use the plyo ball for weight but with a partner you can toss it back and forth between each rep.

Extreme athletes like to balance 2 feet on one ball or a one foot per ball on 2 balls, but this is something you have to be advanced in order to try and may want to use a spotter or pole to help balance. Being near a wall you can use the wall.

By Linda Cusmano