Pilates BallWhen you take up Pilates, you will have to be prepared for the sheer number of people who nod with recognition and say “Yeah, that thing with the big squeezy ball, right?”. For the sake of brevity, it might be wisest to just say “Yes, that’s the one” and carry on with your day – but in actual fact the big squeezy ball is not only not compulsory Pilates equipment, it is not even traditional Pilates equipment. Certainly, they were neither invented nor prescribed by Joseph Pilates when he designed the exercise regime that so many follow today. That said, they make up a part of many Pilates classes and they are useful.

While it is the role of many pieces of exercise equipment to make the exercise easier to do, the exercise ball (to give it as accurate a name as can really be bestowed upon it) does quite the opposite. It provides the exerciser with a challenge, in that they have to factor in not only the amount of work that they need to do but also the amount of balance they will require in order to do it. You have surely seen the type of ball of which we speak – it is usually between 50-75 cm in diameter and inflatable. Imagine sitting on one to watch television – you’d find the whole process somewhat disorienting. This is why it benefits the exercise to such a great extent.

Apart from anything else, the muscle groups you will need to work to give you balance on an exercise ball are exactly those which Pilates is designed to strengthen and use – your core muscles. These are the muscles which will get sore when you hold your body in an unnatural position for a prolonged period – and with Pilates, you can work to make this less problematic.

Often you will hear the ball referred to as a Pilates ball (which despite the title of this article is not strictly accurate), a balance ball or a stability ball. As you will have noticed, the latter two refer to things which the ball takes away rather than bestows – but this is because it is those qualities it hopes to reinforce in you.