About the Big Bouncy Whatchacallit Ball

When I was in my 30s, my doctor told me something I already knew. I have no balance. Because I was working in Physical Therapy, I knew a whole staff of physical therapists at the hospital who knew about such thing as balance deficiency. The therapists assured me they could help with balance therapy but their advice would only help as long as I did the work every day. Guess what they used? A great big bouncy ball. Now this was in about 1984 before anyone but the Swiss were using the big bouncy ball outside of therapy clinics. So, since the ball was not something I could afford for home use, I just decided to go through life unbalanced. Well, you know what I mean.

Then I discovered Tai Chi. Doing Tai Chi is great for gaining and maintaining balance but, after I moved, I never found a group that met at a time I could attend. In my new job and my new place I had no time, no work life balance, and soon I was back to no balance, literally.

Suddenly, in the exercise and fitness world, the big bouncy ball is everywhere. And, it is priced much better than the big bouncy therapy ball of old, I guess because there are so many of them. Did I get one? You bet.

Now, as a purveyor of the big bouncy ball, it is a dilemma of what to call it. Exercise ball? Fitness ball? Balance ball? Swiss ball? Yoga ball? I have noticed that if a man using the big bouncy ball, it is most often called a Swiss ball. Not sure why that is. Anyway, the ball is used for all those things. Well, I am not certain that using the ball makes you Swiss but all the other descriptions apply.

The next big dilemma was which ball to choose since there are so many choices. Obviously you want one that guarantees not to burst. That is a must. But there are so many sizes. Interestingly enough, I just happened upon the following information on which ball you should get depending on your height. You can use this as a guideline for which big bouncy ball you should use in your exercise:

30 cm, frankly, I didn't even know they made one this small but it appears to be useful for certain exercises. I am still researching this.45 cm, if you are less than 4'8" tall55 cm, 4'8" to 5'4"65 cm, 5'4" to 6'0"75 cm for the people over 6'0"

So I just learned that my current ball is one size too small for my uses and I should get another. And I will. But now, with this new found knowledge, I am excited about the new possibilities with an even better fit.

You can find any number of DVDs to help you use the big bouncy ball (still don't know what to call it) in yoga, Pilates, balance training, and all sorts of other exercise regimens. It has become an important piece of exercise equipment.

Even if you don't use the big bouncy ball for sweat inducing exercise, it has some pretty cool uses for just sitting still. Sitting on the ball, whatever you call it, for at least 30 seconds, can help realign your spine. Additionally, you can lie down on your stomach on top of the ball, just roll yourself onto it, and it is almost like traction on your spine and paraspinal muscles. Even if you never use the big bouncy ball for anything at all, having the big bouncy Exercise-Fitness-Balance-Swiss-Yoga ball rolling around your room makes you look very athletic and may even inspire some activity one day.

Marketing the big bouncy ball can be a nightmare since you don't know what names people are going to use to find it. At Old Back Magic I think we will just continue to call it the big bouncy ball.