- Health, Fitness & Weight Loss
- Keep the Weight Off this Christmas
- A Personal Trainer Changed my Life!
- Abdominal Exercise Myths
- Basal Metabolic Rate - Burn Fat while you Sleep
- The Benefits of Bootcamp Training
- The Benefits of Swiss Ball Training
- Get your New Years Resolutions Right
- Corporate Fitness Boosts your Bottom Line!
- Corporate Health Tips
- Functional Performance Training
- Goal Setting for Fitness Results
- Guidelines for Body Fat Percentages
- How to Choose your Personal Trainer
- Introducing the BOSU Balance Trainer
- Motivated for Success
- Not All Swiss Balls are Created Equal
- Personal Training Studio vs Gym
- Recovery and Regeneration
- Sizing your Swiss Ball
- Spring Clean your Training Routine
- Training in your Target Heart Rate Zone
- Walk Off your Waistline
- Weight Loss - Why Weights Work
- Why a REPs PT is your Best Bet
- Why I Fell for my Foam Roller
- Ten Tips for Summer Weight Loss
- Endurance
- Sport Specific Performance
- Nutrition
- Training with Specific Conditions
- References
Not All Swiss Balls are Created Equal
Swiss balls - the Duraball Pro is put to the Sword
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or swiss balls to be deemed anti burst, they must qualify by passing a test where they are progressively loaded, then punctured with a sharp blade. While under load the size of the cut should not expand and the ball should deflate slowly rather than burst.
Tests on the DuraBall Pro have found the product has a 500kg anti burst rating under a dynamic (moving) load. This means, if you applied a dynamic load of 500kg to the ball and it suffered a puncture of any kind, it will deflate slowly giving the user a margin of safety to prevent injury.
What’s the big deal about anti-burst?
A few years ago, the only balls available to the public were the cheap kind that looked like a child’s toy molded into a piece of gym apparatus. Thousands of these Swiss balls were sold - you may even be the proud owner of one.
Well you’ll be happy to hear there’s nothing wrong with it, provided it doesn’t burst. When a cheap ball explodes, it does so dramatically - much like a balloon - and if you are on top of it loaded with weight, there’s a high chance you’ll get injured. Given that there is always the possibility that a cheap swiss ball could suddenly and spontaneously explode underneath you, it is strongly advised that you invest in an anti-burst swiss ball.
Not all Swiss Balls are Created Equal!
Just because a manufacturer says a ball is anti-burst or burst resistant, doesn’t guarantee it's safety. You need to know the safe weight range at which the swiss ball is anti burst.
The DuraBall Pro is rated at 500 kg dynamic and 2000 kg static load. It’s important to know this because some balls will claim to be anti burst but won’t stipulate their rating. If a swiss balls anti-burst rating is to 100kg then this ball will not suit some people and will be unsafe to use additional weight on. As the DuraBall Pro is rated to 500kg there is a huge safety margin so you can feel confident in the ball’s integrity.
There is no doubt that a swiss ball is a great tool for training (read Benefits of Swiss Ball Training), so before you go out and buy one ask yourself this - is saving a few dollars really worth it, when your health and safety is at risk? We don’t think so. Click here to purchase a top of the line DuraBall Pro today.