TRAGEDY STRIKES PELHAM FITNESS STUDIO

I've been a fitness professional for 20 years now and I've seen some strange things happen but what I am about to tell ranks as THE most strangest and tragic. It happened one Tuesday afternoon on my return to the Bodyware studio.

It was a hot and humid day in June, nothing out of the ordinary. I had finished training my morning clients and now I was ready for the second half of my day. As I unlocked the door and entered the studio, I noticed an event had transpired just to the right of my line of sight. I looked but it didn't register. I looked again and the whole horrible scene finally made its presence felt. For a split second, I really couldn't make out just what I had just witnessed but there no denying a very strange and tragic event had taken place while I was gone.

An orange 55mm Nordic-Track stability ball had spontaneously exploded! Draped over one of the pull-up bars was half of the remains and the rest on the rubber floor just below it. I gasped and shook my head in disbelief. The remains of the ball isn't what turned my stomach. What made me look in horror was the sand that was inside the ball had exploded onto the studio floor. It wasn't a little sand. It was enough to build a small sand castle! As you can see by the image below, the sand was all over the place resembling an abstract painting.

 My first reaction was to not to taint the scene of the crime and report this to the proper authorities but then I told myself, 'Hey, you ARE the proper authority!'. I circled around the perimeter to assess the damage. As I was patrolling the area, I couldn't wrap my brain around what cause such an explosive situation. This was quite strange! I look at the other half just suspended over the point of impact and began to remove it.

The ball had split along one of its seams and became unglued. Was the pressure of providing endless clients the support needed to execute sit-ups, leg curls, hip raises, pikes was just too much? Without warning this stability ball became unstable and just decided to take matters into its own sphere and end it? Maybe...just maybe.

With more questions than answers, I removed the remains of the ball and proceeded to sanitize the scene. As I was vacuuming, the true reason why such a tragic event took place became more and more concrete. As I pieced together the days timeline, I noticed I hadn't turn the air conditioner on. I grabbed the remote and in that moment, I realized it was me who was responsible for the balls demise. With the extreme fluctuation in temperature between the coolness of the studio and the humidity of the outside world, this change must've caused the ball to expand uncontrollably and without warning exploded. My God, what have I done! That was the only logical explanation and the only one that made sense to me.

Guilty as charged, your honor! I alone acted in such a brutal death of one of my prize fitness tools. My sentence? Go buy another one. No, not just one but two. Well that was easy!

Stability balls are a great tool and should be part of anyone's fitness arsenal. The added instability forces a muscular and neurological demand to remain as stable as possible. This forced stability translates into a stronger body. Many associate stability balls with working the core but it is much moe than that. With the core as ground zero, you are able to express strength from the ground through the core and perform movements that translates well to your daily life. It can also make a great chair.

There are to general rules when purchasing a stability ball. One is to get the right size. Their sizes range from 45cm to 75cm. The two most common are the 55cm (if you are 4'11"-5'4") and the 65cm (if you are 5'5"-5'11"). Two, inflate to its proper size or suffer the same tragedy I created.

Most have an exercise booklet that shows you a variety of movements that can be done. So if you do not have one, go out and get one that supports over 300 lbs of pressure and has anti-burst technology. This way, the ball will NOT explode but will slowly lose air if it becomes compromised. Believe me, you'll thank me for that one piece of advice!