Unless you’ve been asleep at the wheel, you’ve no doubt seen exercise balls around… In stores, on TV, at the gym or personal trainer’s or at a friend’s house. They’re very popular these days and are, arguably, the best single piece of fitness equipment available for getting into shape. They’re inexpensive to buy, easy and fun to use and amazingly effective at helping you to reduce fat and tone your core muscles, thereby giving you awesome abs. Exercise ball workouts are varied and specific to particular muscle groups.

First off, if you don’t yet have an exercise ball (also sometimes called a fitness ball or stability ball) you’ll need to go out and get one. Some are available for less than twenty dollars while others may be as much as fifty or more. Most are about the same — a big, rubber inflatable ball designed to hold weight of up to nearly a thousand pounds — but some come with extras such as how-to videos.

Make sure to get the correct size, determined by your individual height. When sitting on your fitness ball, with your feet flat on the floor, your knees should form a ninety-degree angle. If not, you need to get a different size.

Now that you’ve got your ball, what can you do with it? If yours didn’t come with an instructional video and you’re not inclined to go to a gym or a personal trainer who can teach you the correct way to use it, then go to the Internet. There are numerous sites available online which can teach you not only what exercises to do but how to do them and what results you can expect. Many include very descriptive pictures you can follow and some even have how-to videos you can watch to help you along.

And exercise ball is extremely effective in working your core muscles. Core muscles include abdominals (abs) in front of and to the sides of your stomach. They also include certain back, shoulder and neck muscles. The core muscles are responsible for all the movements in your body, and working on them will not only benefit your entire body but make any other exercises you do easier and more effective.

Because a fitness ball is round, just the act of sitting on it starts to work your core muscles. These muscles will flex and contract automatically in response to the natural tendency to roll off the ball and fall over. There are almost an unlimited number of exercises that can be performed with the aid of an exercise ball.

It’s also nice to have specific exercises that target specific areas. Trunk extension works the back. Crunches target the abs. Bent knee bridge helps the hamstrings and buttocks. Superman works the upper, lower and middle back.

The easiest way to learn about effective exercise ball workouts is probably to just go online. You’ll see dozens of sites demonstrating what to do, including pictures and videos. Just get busy. You won’t regret it.

Have fun getting fit when you begin using the exercise ball workouts today! Enjoyable and easy routines that will help you to meet your goals using exercise ball workouts.