Hey everybody, it's Doctor Jo. Today we're going to talk about some back strengthening
exercises. So we talked a little about stretching exercises, so once you get them stretched
out and you work on it a little bit, the Swiss Ball here, that's what this big bouncy ball
is, is great for working out your core, your trunk stability muscles. All those muscles
around here help out your back. So you want to keep them nice and strong, nice and straight.
As you're working, you want to hold those ab muscles in the whole time. You want to
keep them nice and tight, but you want to be able to talk. Mine are contracted right
now, but I'm talking to you. And that's what I want you to be able to do. So the big thing with
the Swiss Ball, is it gives you a surface that's an unstable surface. So, if you're
not squeezing those ab muscles tight, you're gonna kind of be rolling around everywhere.
So even just sitting on a Swiss Ball, if you're reading a book, watching TV, at your computer,
this is going to help strengthen those muscles. The first exercise I'm gonna have you do is
called a pelvic tilt. Now we talked about the pelvic tilts a little bit for stretching
when you were lying down. Now this one's actually gonna be some strengthening. The key when
you're on the Swiss Ball is you want your back to stay nice and straight. You don't
want you upper body swinging around. You want those muscles to stay tight to keep you from
falling off the ball. So I usually have everybody just kind of have you feet about shoulder
width apart so that gives you some good balance. Now the first time you get on a Swiss Ball,
you might roll right off, so be very careful if you're starting for the first time. Get
a friend to hold on to it for you. If you don't have anybody with you, lean it up against
the wall so you have something holding on to it. You can even start off holding on to
it yourself and that will give you a little more stability. So you can start doing your
exercises like this, and once you feel like you've got the balance a little bit, then
you can let go, put them in your lap and that will be a little bit harder for you. When
you get a Swiss Ball, you want it to be high enough where your knee angle is about a 90
degree angle. This one might be a little bit low for me, but that's just because it needs
a little more air. But really close to 90 is what you want. So the first thing we're
going to do, we're gonna do those pelvic tilts. So what I want you to do is I don't want you
rolling back and forth like this, remember we want our upper body to stay nice and straight,
and you're just rolling at your pelvis. So, it's a little provocative, but this is really
getting those lower muscles working, moving, getting them a little stronger. Remember,
you wanna keep those ab muscles nice and tight while you're doing it. Now, when you're on
the Swiss Ball, you don't wanna go all out because you'll be sore later. So start off
with just about 10 in each direction. Where you're really trying to go to the back, go
to the front. Nice and controlled. The ball's not rolling around. You're not rolling around.
Your upper body staying nice and straight. The next one you're gonna do, is then a side
to side tilt. We call this a lateral tilt. Same kind of thing, you want to keep your
upper body straight, but you're just tipping your hips up and down. Just back and forth,
get about 10 times. Then what you can do, we call hula hoop or some circles. You're
just rotating that around. Now remember, you don't wanna be doing this. You want that upper
body to be straight, but you want those hips to be moving. Rolling them around. Then go
back the other way. Rolling them around. Alright, good. Now that those are nice and loose, you
can start adding some combination moves to get those muscles really working. So the first
thing I'm gonna have you do, remember you can hold on if you need to cause this is gonna
be really hard the first time you do it. What you're gonna do is your gonna just take your
foot, and lift it about that much off the ground. You don't have to lift it high, but
you're just gonna lift it off the ground. And then you're gonna slowly come back down.
Now remember the key is control, so you're not doing this, cause then that's not working
those muscles. You're gonna bring it up, a little pause, slowly bring it down. And then
alternate feet. At the same time you're keeping those abs nice and tight. Try not to move
the ball around a lot. It's gonna move a little bit, but you wanna stay stable. You don't
wanna end up falling off. Good. So you're just gonna do that about 10 times the first
time you do it. If you're not super sore afterwards, then you can the repetitions until you're
sore and then do 2 more after that. The next step is now what you're gonna do is you're
gonna kick your leg out. So you're just kicking straight out. Come back in. Remember you're
trying to keep everything nice and still. Alternating legs back and forth. Kicking out.
Good. Going back in. Alright. SO now if you wanna bump it up a little bit, if you're feeling
pretty good, feeling pretty confident. What you're gonna do now is you're gonna get your
arms involved a little bit. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go back to lifting a leg,
but this time I'm gonna lift my upper arm up. And alternate back and forth. Keeping
everything nice and tight. Keeping those abs tight. Trying not to slide the ball around
too much. Not falling off the ball, getting hurt. About 10 times with that. If you're
feeling really confident and you're like "Oh that was really easy" try doing it on the
same side. So now you're gonna lift both of them on your left side, both of them on your
right side. Same thing, remember you don't want to be wobbling around, if you're wobbling
around, that's what's gonna get your hurt. That's what's gonna make you sore. So keep
those abs tight. Lifting back and forth. Good. I'm gonna show you one more progression. There's
a lot of progressions, but I just want you to start out with some simple stuff, see how
it feels. Then you can check out our progression videos for some harder exercises. The next
one, if you felt like those were pretty simple, what you can do then, you can lie down on
your back and now lift your legs. Now see, the ball's moving a lot more. So you really
need to hold those abs tight. Nice and slow. If you feel like you're having to bring your
leg down too quickly, then you're not quite ready for the exercise yet. Just going up.
Going up. Good. And then rolling back up. Alright, so there you have it. Those were
your Swiss Ball exercises for back strengthening and core strengthening. Now remember these
are really high level exercises, you're gonna probably feel it, so build yourself up. Don't
go all out at one time. If you like these exercises, please click the like button, leave
us a comment. And if you'd like to see more educational videos or exercise videos, please
check out my website at AskDoctorJo.com. And remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope you
feel better soon.