7 Surprising Exercises You Can Do With A Balance Board That Will Sculpt Your Body

7 Surprising Exercises You Can Do With A Balance Board That Will Sculpt Your Body

Balance Boards are a fitness accessory that can be used for several benefits, it really is the silent achiever when it comes to the range of benefits it offers. From helping improve balance, posture, aiding in rehabilitation, preventing lower body injuries, increasing core strength through to sculpting your body. Pair that back with its compact size, and you can take this little board with you anywhere, from working out in the lounge room, through to outside while soaking up some vitamin D.

We walk you through 7 surprising exercises you can do with the Xpeed Wooden Balance Board that will help sculpt your body.

1. Single leg balance

Single leg balance exercises improve your balance and your body's spatial awareness. It's a really great alternative for those with back pain. Single leg exercises allow you to target the legs with greatly reduced force on the spine since the overall loads are typically less than with bilateral lifts. Implementing a Balance Board into your single leg exercises helps by honing in on activating your leg and core muscles while strengthening your back.

Steps:

• Stand on one foot in the middle of the board. Brace yourself so your other leg stays steady and elevated.
• Switch legs.

2. Round the clock

The goal of this exercise is to keep the Balance Board steady as you make a full rotation. It challenges your balance and strengthens your core and lower leg muscles as you try to control the movement. One of the biggest benefits of this exercise with your board is the foot rotation as you work in the round the clock motion that helps stabilise plantarflexion, dorsiflexion, inversion and eversion.

Steps:

• Begin in starting position.
• Now bring it around and roll the board 360 degrees clockwise.
• Pause for a second, and then roll around counter-clockwise.

3. Hip bridges

The basic hip bridge strengthens your glutes and hamstrings while enhancing core stability.  But now imagine amplifying those muscle groups and really elevating your exercise to maximise your strength through your glutes, your back all the way through to your core.

Steps:

• Lie faceup with knees bent, arms by your sides, and feet pointed toward the board.
• Lift your feet and place soles on the board.
• Squeeze those glutes as you press feet into the board to lift your hips. Go as high as you can while keeping steady.
• Squeeze your glutes and hold for a few seconds.
• Slowly lower your bod to the floor.

4. Squats

Squats are part of almost any great exercise routine, and are especially useful for strengthening the quads, hamstrings, glutes and back muscles. But squats with a Balance Board add a new challenge to those muscle groups by requiring your body to navigate its balance at the same time. 

This exercise is also great if you are interested in weight loss. Increasing the muscle mass in the large muscles described above helps to increase your metabolism, which therefore causes an increase in your calorie burn, so working with a Balance Board for your squats will keep those leg and core muscles working hard all while improving your overall balance. 

Steps:

• Start with feet a little wider than hip-distance apart.
• Extend arms in front of you for balance.
• Slowly bend at your knees into a squat position. Get as low as you can go while staying steady.
• Push through heels to stand back up.

Love a challenge or want to push your training to the next level? Try this exercise with a couple of dumbbells.

5. Mountain Climbers

Most of us have a real love/hate relationship with mountain climbers, love the results, but boy do they make you work hard! But throw in a Balance Board, and that love/hate relationship is about to go to the next level! Not only will the results be greater, but the work rate is also greater.

Mountain climbers are great for building cardio endurance, core strength, and agility. You work several different muscle groups with mountain climbers, it's almost like getting a total body workout with just one exercise.

When adding a Balance Board to your mountain climbers, your shoulders, arms, and chest work to stabilise your upper body and counter the movement of your board, while your core muscles fire on all cylinders to stabilise the rest of your body resulting in every little muscle around your abdominal area to obtain an amazing workout too. As the main mover, your quads get an incredible workout as well.

Steps:

• Start in push-up position with your hands on the board, making sure to distribute your weight evenly between your hands and your toes.
• Your hands should be about shoulder-width apart, back flat, abs engaged, and head in alignment.
• Pull your right knee into your chest as far as you can.
• Switch legs, pulling one knee out and bringing the other knee in.
• Keep your hips down and run your knees in and out as far as you can while retaining your balance.

6. Push ups hands on board

Like standard push ups, using a Balance Board works your chest, core, shoulders and arms. However adding the Balance Board fires up twice the number of core muscles and will bring in all of your small stabiliser muscles in your core, chest, shoulders and arms.  

Steps:

• Start in push-up position with your hands on the board, just wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Squeeze that core. Look straight at the board.
• Bend your elbows and slowly see how low you can go while keeping your body in a straight line.
• Pause, then return to the starting position.

7. Push up toes on board

Similar to a push up on your hands, doing a push up with your toes on a Balance Board requires more muscles to be activated to navigate your balance while performing your push up exercise. This muscle activation ensures your core is firing throughout your whole exercise movement and really wake up the stabiliser muscles in your lower legs.

Steps:

• Start in push-up position. Keep your hands on the floor and place your feet on the board.
• Engage those abs. Look down at the floor to keep a neutral spine.
• Bend your elbows and lower down as far as you can go.
• Take a breath, then return to the starting position.

Balance boards really are the gift that keeps on giving. From beginners, through to elite athletes there are a range of exercises that you can do to help sculpt your body and build muscles and prevent injuries by strengthening core muscle groups. Using a Balance Board activates muscle groups to really ensure your body is working hard throughout each exercise movement. Discover our range of Balance Boards here and start sculpting your body today!