As an experienced strength coach who trains trainers, I've come to realize how misunderstood the Swiss ball is within the "hardcore" and the "functional" strength communities. In light of this realization, I'm stepping up to set the record straight about Swiss balls and how they should and shouldn't be utilized in an effective strength program.

Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game

My friend and colleague, Coach Rob Simonelli, brought up an interesting point when he and I were discussing why serious weight lifters dislike Swiss balls. Rob said, "What serious lifters don't understand is that it's not so much the Swiss balls themselves they dislike, it's what they represent."

He was absolutely right. Folks on the "hardcore" side of things have made Swiss balls guilty by association just because there are a bunch of "functional" trainees out there doing some seriously ridiculous stuff on them. This doesn't mean that Swiss balls can't be used for stuff that actually has value.

To all you Swiss ball haters out there, ask yourselves one question: "Am I blaming the tool, or the practitioner?"

I think you'll realize that Rob and I are correct in saying that the Swiss ball, like everything else in the gym, is just a tool. It can be used or abused, depending on whose hands it's in.

The fact that there are people out there abusing a certain tool doesn't mean we should throw it out of the tool box altogether. Heck, if that was the case, we wouldn't use any equipment at all judging by what I've seen people doing with barbells and dumbbells!

The exercises shown in this article are in no way designed to replace your "core" lifts. They're just options to challenge your body in a new way, resulting in new gains. In other words, they're just tools in the toolbox.

When Instability and Strength is Actually Good

Recently, I got to attend one of Eric Cressey's classes on upper body training. During his workshop, Eric made a great point that I feel is relevant to this article. He said that although unstable surface training for the lower body has been found to be ineffective and in some cases even counterproductive for healthy individuals, instability training for the upper body may actually be beneficial.

Eric went on to explain that it all has to do with the fact that the lower body predominantly functions in a closed chained (both feet in contact with the ground) manner that doesn't normally involve the ground moving underneath it. However, the upper body functions in more of an open chained (no ground or solid surface contact) manner, with things more likely to move and change position.

This makes a lot of sense if you think of a mother holding her child who's unhappy about being picked up. Her feet are dealing with a flat and stable ground while her upper body is all over place dealing with another body moving in every which way in an attempt to get away.

Now that I've added some clarity to the myths and misconceptions about the Swiss ball, I'm going to provide you with a list of exercises using the Swiss ball that I have found to be beneficial to my clients, sporting athletes, and Figure competitors.

The Exercises

Y, T, W, L Shoulder Circuit w/Swiss Ball

The reason why I prefer to use the Swiss ball while performing our Y,T,W, L shoulder circuits has nothing to do with the shoulders themselves and everything to do with the trunk. In that, when athletes perform the Y,T,W, L circuits on a flat surface like the floor or a bench, they usually start to extend from their lower back in a superman like position.

This is normally due to the fact that they, like many athletes, lack ample shoulder flexion. Therefore, they attempt to kick in the lumbar extensors to help raise the arms.

If you refer to my article How Not to Warm Up, you'll see why this type of movement is undesirable. We all tend to slouch and sit too much, in doing so we create length and weakness in the thoracic area. So the real goal here is to somehow create extension at the thoracic spine, not the lumbar spine. This can be successfully accomplished by performing the Y,T,W, L shoulder circuit on a Swiss ball.

I position my athletes so that the apex of their thoracic curve during flexion over the ball is over the top of the apex of the ball itself. We also have them flex at the hip joint, which further decreases the potential for lumbar extension at the lumbar spine.

This positioning allows us to build endurance in all the muscles involved in extending the thoracic spine while simultaneously reaping the benefits of the Y,T,W, L shoulder circuit.

The Swiss Ball Dumbbell Chest Press

The Swiss ball chest press allows us to build flexibility in hip flexors, strength endurance in the anterior neck muscles and glutes, while simultaneously building upper body pushing strength.

It's the only exercise where I use the ball in combination with weights. However, because it involves an unstable surface, I only use it while performing repetitive effort lifts — never while performing dynamic or max effort lifts.

Many people will argue about the instability of the ball interfering with strength output. When I meet coaches that are of that mindset, I tell them two things:

1. If the feet are positioned shoulder width or wider, the instability is pretty much canceled out.
2. Even if we do agree that instability interferes with max strength output, that's okay, as I only use this exercise with sub-maximal loads, as in a hypertrophy phase or repetitive effort phase.

In my mind, if you want a lot of bang for your buck, the Swiss ball chest press is a great choice.

Swiss Ball Roll Out

This exercise is one of our all time favorites for training the anterior trunk muscles. We like it because it develops torso strength and pelvic control without putting the spine in a flexed position, as it would be in a crunch-type exercise.

Mike Boyle produced a great article called Anterior Core Training that thoroughly describes the theory and methodology behind movements like the Swiss ball roll out. In that same article, Boyle also displayed many progressions to the roll out, involving tools like the ab dolley and arko wheels. If you don't have these tools available to you, here are some simple progression strategies you can use.

The beginner's version of the Swiss ball roll out starts with the elbows bent and forearms resting on the ball, as in the photo to the right.

This exercise can then be progressed by raising the torso and straightening the arms, which lengthens the lever arm and increases the demand on the anterior core.

On both of these roll out variations, be sure to extend both your arms and legs while maintaining a fairly neutral spine. Only go out as far as you can without losing optimal spinal alignment.

The Reverse Ball Roll Out

As of late, we've been using another variation of the roll out — the reverse roll out. To perform this movement, hold onto a stable object, such as a weight bench. While maintaining alignment, extend your lower body until you reach a superman-type position. Return to the starting position, and repeat.

The height of surface you're holding onto should be approximately even to the height of the ball. In the picture to the right, Tim is holding onto a bar that's slightly higher than the ball underneath his legs. You can see how this is causing him to sag slightly at his low back. (We were in the process of moving our gym during this photo shoot and we had to work with what we had left in the gym.)

Swiss Ball Toe Plank

This is another great anterior core exercise. We usually perform holds for anywhere from ten to twenty seconds. Proper form for this exercise is pretty much self explanatory.

Swiss Ball Knee Tucks

If you have fairly decent core strength, Swiss ball knee tucks aren't really that difficult. This is why we don't use this exercise with the intention of building strength, but rather to build awareness of what the rehab world calls "hip/back disassociation" (how well you can move at the hips without moving at the lumbar spine).

There are lots of ways to accomplish this, but that's beyond the scope of this article. However, in the context of the Swiss ball knee tuck exercise, we want our athletes to be able to flex at their hips without flexing at their lower backs. If they can accomplish this, it shows that they posses good hip/back disassociation.

Athletes with poor hip/back disassociation will always compensate for a lack of hip mobility by increasing mobility at the lumbar spine, which according to the latest research, is designed for stability, not mobility.

Single Leg Swiss Ball Knee Tuck

This version of the knee tuck is much more difficult than the previous because there's an added rotary component. Although there's no visual rotation, the athlete has to work to prevent gravity form pulling them into rotation on the side of the lifted leg. This is what my good friend JC Santana calls "training the invisible."

Single Arm Holds

This is one of the hardest core stabilization exercises I know, and it's pretty self explanatory. Simply maintain optimal spinal alignment while keeping your arm locked out. We use holds ranging from five to fifteen seconds.

Swiss Ball Straight Leg Bridge

We always encourage our athletes to perform this lift from their hamstrings and glutes, not from their low back. Athletes with an increased lordosis (low back curve) will find this more difficult to do.

Yes, I know you can also do this on a bench, but our athletes seem to like it better with the ball. And as they say, "the customer is always right."

Besides, you can't do some of the progressions I'm about to show you on a bench.

Straight Leg Bridges with Long Lever

Check out the photo to the right to see just how these are done. We learned this progression from Coach JC Santana; they're a great way to integrate the calves and increase the overall difficulty on your posterior muscles.

Be sure to keep the heels off the ball.

Single Leg Hip Bridges

These are not only a great progression to the bilateral bridge, but they serve as a nice compliment to the single leg knee tucks.

These work on improving hip/back disassociation in extension. Here again, we want to see the extension coming from the hips and glutes and not from the low back. We encourage our athletes to keep the lifted knee stable during this exercise; if it moves, that means that the pelvis is moving and therefore stability is lost.

Swiss Ball Bent Leg Bridges

The bent leg bridges are more glute-dominant than the straight leg version. That said, your hamstring have to work isometrically to hold the ball in place while the hips rise and fall.

Single Leg Bent Leg Bridge

The rules on the one leg version are the same as above: Just be sure to prevent any sort of pelvic rotation due to the reduced base of support.

Swiss Ball Leg Curls

Once you can successfully perform both the straight and bent leg exercises, simply combine the two moves to make the leg curl. This is one exercise you really can't do with a bench. Take a look at the demo photo to the right to see how this is done.

Once your hips lift up, they don't come down until the set is complete. Be sure to lift your hips higher up as the legs curl in. This will create a straight line between the knee, hip, and torso.

Aside from glute ham raises, this is the only exercise that allows us to train hip extension and knee flexion simultaneously. Those two motions are always coupled together during any locomotive type action.

Single Leg Ball Curl

This progression from the two-leg curl, when done correctly, will challenge even the most advanced athlete.

Swiss Ball Complex

Once each one of the above exercises are mastered separately, we like to combine them into a Swiss ball complex, which we then use as part of an active dynamic warm up, as a warm down, or as active rest on recovery days.

Here's the progression:
Roll outs: 10-20 reps
Push ups: 10-20 reps
Y,T,W,L shoulder circuit: 10-15 reps per letter
Knee tucks: 10-20 reps
Toes on ball plank: Hold for 10-30 seconds

Complete 1-3 sets of the complex with up to 60 seconds rest between sets.

This complex is very popular with our clients and athletes because it has a smooth flow between exercises, it's easy to remember, and it gets a lot of quality work done in little time. Aside from that, it's fun!

Final Comments

Well, there you have it, the definitive list of Swiss ball exercises that don't suck. If it's not listed here and it involves a Swiss ball then ... well, you get the point.

The exercises on this list have been a part of our performance and physique programs at Performance University for many years. They've been used by just about everyone who's walked through our doors.

I can't honestly tell you that these Swiss ball exercises are solely responsible for our clients and athletes consistently getting bigger stronger and faster, but I can tell you that they sure as hell haven't hurt.