A Case of Mistaken Identity
by Pam Brooks

Yvonne, the world famous Glutenfreeda chef, is a best pal. She taught me how to love cooking. I taught her quick ways to stay fit when you’re really busy. One day at the gym, we were stretching out on some mats, scanning the fitness charts on the wall while we stretched. We fell into a pile laughing when Yvonne pointed out a series of photographs of a woman sitting on a great big ball, doing variations of movements that looked to us as if she was getting nowhere fast.

"Oh like that is really going to work", Yvonne said. Then we proceeded to make fun of all the non-workout movements on the exercise ball. These same movements cam back to haunt me several months later when I worked out with Wayne, a very creative personal trainer. Wayne showed me some several effective exercises to do with the exercise ball. I realized how wrong we had been about the seemingly benign ball. All along it was really an instrument of torture (just kidding, sort of) for those troublesome places that seem to need more attention than others — abs, legs, and buns.

Exercise balls are inexpensive, available at stores that sell exercise equipment and there are many more exercises you can explore with them. The key is to start slowly with these movements and increase the time you spend as you improve.

1.	2. Move the ball towards the hands as the knees bend.

Abdominals, Upper & Lower Torso

3.	4. Contract abdominals while moving the ball toward the hands.

Abdominals

5.	6.

Abdominals, Lower Torso

7.	8.

9. Tuck abdominals. Move ball upward and downward in slow motion

– Pam Brooks