The Exercise Ball Office Challenge
So you got an exercise ball to sit on at work to improve your posture and strengthen your core, yet you are still mostly sitting in a chair, and the ball is just taking up space. Fear not, your exercise ball also happens to be a great piece of exercise equipment! There are over 100 exercises you could do with an exercise ball, but we are going to focus on the creme de la creme, the subtle ones you could do in front of your coworkers, or the ones you could challenge your coworkers to do with you.
THE SUBTLE ONES
These exercises can be performed in front of an audience without anyone knowing that you are secretly getting stronger. They are subtle yet effective. Doing these exercises has the added benefit of allowing you to remain seated on an exercise ball for a longer duration without feeling still. The secret to staying pain-free at work or in life is to keep moving.
Tushy Tucks
An excellent core and glute exercise that is quite subtle. All that we are doing in this movement is attempting to tuck our tushies under our hips. Imagine bringing your genitalia forward and up, once we have the tushy tucked, squeeze your glutes like you’ve got a playing card in your buttcheeks and you don’t want it to fall out, brace your abs, and hold for three seconds. Release, return to a normal seated position and repeat.
Side-Bend to Sits
A great way to work your obliques without taking a break from work. Start seated with good posture, and try to push your booty slightly to the side slowly with control. Return to the seated position and like the tushy tucks, squeeze your glutes, and brace your abs. Perform eight to ten repetitions on one side and then do the same on the other.
THE ONES YOU CAN CHALLENGE YOUR COWORKERS WITH
The best thing about exercise balls is that they are downright fun if you let a child that doesn’t have a cellphone into your office, it is the first thing they will gravitate towards. You can bounce on them while working, try the aforementioned subtle exercises, or you could do some not so subtle group activities. There are many popular plank challenges out there, and they all end with you holding a forearm plank for an extended time. The ground forearm plank is great but has some diminishing returns after about a minute. The goal of any plank position is to keep a straight line from the back of your head to your thoracic spine, to your butt, while simultaneously bracing your abs and glutes. On the ground, after about a minute, your abs will stop helping as much, and your shoulders will carry the load, although, on an exercise ball, your abs can’t really give up due to the instability of the surface. Therefore I’ve created a new office plank challenge (see the end of the article) that has more value than any I’ve seen yet. However, before we get to the challenge, let’s go over how to perform each movement in it properly.
Plank
With your forearms on the ball, maintain a straight line from the back of your head, to your thoracic spine, to your butt, while simultaneously bracing your abs and glutes.
Lastly, imagine you are trying to push the ball away from you into the floor, this will stop you from putting unwanted pressure on your shoulders. Feet together for maximum difficulty, or feet hip-width apart to make it slightly easier.
High Plank
With your hands on both sides of the ball, palms facing each other, maintain a straight line from the back of your head, to your thoracic spine, to your butt, while simultaneously bracing your abs and glutes. Again, push the ball away from you, to avoid unwanted pressure on your shoulders; feet together for maximum difficulty or feet hip-width apart to make it slightly easier.
Words of Warning: Be sure to get a decent exercise ball and fill it up appropriately. When performing any plank variation on a ball, always start on your knees. once you are set in a good position then pop off your knees. If an exercise feels too challenging, return to your knees. If at any point your stomach starts to drupe towards the floor, rest, you don’t want to stress your lower back. Also, don’t interlace your fingers, you want to be able to come out of the position with ease. The office plank challenge is hard, and not for the faint of heart, if you cannot complete a day, repeat that day until you can, this twenty-day challenge often takes closer to 35 days.
THE OFFICE PLANK 20-DAY CHALLENGE
Example: 3x10s (Read, three sets of ten seconds)
Day 1: 3 x 10s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 2: 3 x 15s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 3: 3 x 20s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 4: 3 x 25s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 5: 3 x 30s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 6: 3 x 10s High Plank on Ball
Day 7: 3 x 15s High Plank on Ball
Day 8: 3 x 20s High Plank on Ball
Day 9: 2 x 35s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 10: 2 x 40s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 11: 3 x 20s High Plank on Ball
Day 12: 3 x 20s High Plank on Ball
Day 13: 3 x 30s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 14: 2 x 45s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 15: 2 x 50s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 16: 2 x 55s Forearm Plank on Ball
Day 17: 2 x 30s High Plank on Ball
Day 18: 2 x 40s High Plank on Ball
Day 19: 1 x 50s High Plank on Ball
Day 20: 1 x 60s Forearm Plank on Ball
Good luck to you and anyone you can convince to try this with you, it is harder than it sounds.
