David PerlmutterPresident,, Perlmutter Health Center · Board-Certified Neurologist | Functional Medicine Pioneer | #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author | International Speaker | Host of The Empowering Neurologist Podcast

Exercise Ball Sit-Ups, from The Grain Brain Whole Life Plan

14 Nov 2016 · 1 min

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1:04

In this brief instructional segment, Dr. David Perlmutter emphasizes the value of using minimal equipment for fitness, focusing on the exercise ball commonly found in gyms and hotel gyms. He demonstrates a core exercise—a sit-up performed on the ball—describing the hand placement, back extension, and the rolling motion of the ball as the user rises. He highlights two main advantages: the exercise provides a good spinal extension stretch while being gentle on the back, reducing pressure compared to traditional sit-ups on hard surfaces. He encourages viewers not to avoid the exercise ball, noting its versatility for many other movements.

Chapters

So one of the most important things I've been mentioning is how little equipment you actually need. But you're going to run into this exercise ball a lot, whether you go to a gym or even in the hotel when you're using their gym. You're going to find these exercise balls. And I'll tell you, here's a great exercise that you can do on the ball. And it's a core exercise. It is a form of sit-up. And it really basically just involves putting your hands behind your head, leaning back, getting a nice extension, letting your back open up. And And then as you come up, the ball rolls a little bit back and forward you come. So this is what the motion looks like. The reason I really like this exercise is because you can get great extension on your back stretching, but it's also very kind to your back. You're not really putting a lot of pressure on your back that you might be doing if you're not doing sit-ups on some kind of cushion. So don't shy away from this exercise ball. There's a lot of cool things you can do with it. Thank you.