The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Member’s Meeting Place › Member Chit Chat › Fitball & Overball just arrived!
The Hot Yoga Doctor – Free Bikram and Hot Yoga Resources › Hot Yoga Doctor Forum › Member’s Meeting Place › Member Chit Chat › Fitball & Overball just arrived!
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Hi everyone,
I ordered a Fitball exercise ball & an Overball (or the Pilates soft gym ball, 26 cm diameter) last week & it just arrived in the mail yesterday.
I have used an office chair in my study for the past year & very early on I noticed that no matter how good a posture I start out with when I start sitting at my desk, I always end up with a crummy posture within an hour or two, back hunched forward or hip slouched forward into the seat crumpling my lower back. I’ve tried to adjust the chair to the correct height, lower, higher, to no avail.
I’d heard of the benefits of using a Fitball as a chair but I procrastinated for some time because I have a cute little kitty with cute little SHARP claws at home & I didn’t want my $55 purchase to pop with a whoosh from underneath me one fine day! But my office chair was really starting to bug me so I decided to just go ahead & get a Fitball.
Been sitting on it for 2 days & whoo man does my back shoot up & suddenly, almost magically become straight & more importantly STAY straight effortlessly! Well, almost. I can feel my (very rarely used) lower abdominal muscles working, tightening unconsciously, & my thighs too. I’ve got the right size for my height, inflated it to the right height (when sitting, hips slightly higher than knees) & when sitting, I keep my feet flat on the floor, parallel to each other, knees pointing forward & at a 90 degree angle or just a tad wider, tail bone slightly tucked in. I’m also trying to keep my elbows in my backpockets or at least, keeping the shoulder & upper back posture (hard to type with fingers rotated upwards LOL).
It feels REALLY GOOD. 😀
The Overball is for me to practice the “Flatten your tummy & strengthen your back” video’s exercise. Haven’t gotten down to it but will try it out soon.
I was also playing around with the Fitball & was doing supported & modified variations of Locust Pose part 1 leg lifts, Cobra Pose front lifts & lying on it backwards to do the Noodle from Lucas Rockwood’s stretching guide. Really cool.
Anyone else using a Fitball or exercise ball as a chair or to enhance their yoga practice at home?
Hi Silver,
Does the overball have some give? If so, it sounds similar to something we used as personal trainers in the 90’s to do deep tissue massage. It was about as big as a large canteloupe and was rubber. The person (you) can actually massage out knots and such by rolling the sore area over the ball. You may have heard of people do this with tennis balls and even golf balls , but I found that is for the extremely pain tolerrent induvidual.
Anyways, just wondering about the ball as I have been looking for something like that to work out some muscle ‘bumps’ of my own.
Take care 🙂
Hi looking for balance,
Yup it’s a soft inflatable rubber ball with a mildly bumpy texture, so it can be inflated to as hard or as soft as you want it to be & it won’t slip.
I think it’s a Fitball product, I got mine from the Australian Fitball site but if you’re in the US the US site, called Ball Dynamics, sells it too. Just do a search for Overball.
No, I didn’t know that you could use the ball for massage as well, thanks for sharing that! I like multi-purpose tools 😀 I’m going to read up some more on it.
Goodness lying down & rolling around on a golf ball *wince* Ouch. When I went for some back therapy up in Sydney a few years ago with this lady named Sarah Keys, she prescribed what she called a BackBlock, a rectangular block of wood that you had to lie down on your back on (positioned under the sacrum) to open up the vertebrae, ow that was uncomfortable enough LOL!
I just ordered swiss ball office chairs for our desks at work on recommendation from a PT. I used to sit on a big Swiss ball but it kept rolling away every time I got up. I think it was a combo of being under a heater duct and maybe a slightly uneven floor.
You’ve reminded me of a small soft ball I have and that I used to use with a video to roll over and get the kinks out. Thaks! I’m going to pull it out and use it to work out my stiff areas.
Namaste
Lannette
Both of your descriptions sound correct. I am in Canada and know the sources here 😉 as I worked in the industry for many years.
Good luck and definitely give it a try! It feels great and will also work your core and legs while getting this wonderful self massage. :cheese:
Hi everyone,
I did some of the “Flatten your tummy & strengthen your back” video’s exercise yesterday with the overball, managed only 5 reps before getting tired. :-S Didn’t want to push too hard either. Perhaps it’s because I’m already working out my core sitting on the fitball all day. I do take breaks every once in a while from sitting on the fitball & stretch with the overball under my sacrum, basically just lie on it.
Did a lot of clearing out of the house yesterday, shifting stuff around so that I could clear out a large empty space on the floor in my bedroom for doing the Lucas Rockwood stretches, “Flatten your tummy & strengthen your back” video’s exercise as well as a handful of easy fitball exercises. It was like clearing out a personal space for myself. I live in a rather small 1 room flat so I’d been having difficulties making any decent space for at home exercise.
Now all I need is to figure out how I want to set up a little meditation corner in that space too. %-P Some cushions, a nice rug, incense holder… 😛
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