Do you have a fitness fanatic on your holiday shopping list? Or, maybe someone who needs a little more TLC in their life? We will be rolling out some featured products over the next few weeks that would make great holiday gifts (or a perfect treat for yourself). Let’s start with our SMART Stability Ball.

SMART Stability Balls

According to the American Council on Exercise (ACE), a stability ball is considered an effective tool for strengthening your abdominals and other core muscles. Using an exercise ball as opposed to weight bench or on a flat stable surface is that the body responds to the instability of the ball to remain balanced, forcing various muscles to be engaged.

The core muscles in your body stabilize and support all your movements. The “core” is not one specific muscle, but a word used to describe a group of muscles in your trunk and pelvis.

These muscles work together to protect your spine and help with everyday activities. Bending, throwing, lifting, reaching, and running all use stabilizer muscles. Keeping them well-conditioned is very important to overall health. Without conditioned stabilizer muscles, simple movements like pulling, walking, and running go unsupported and leave you at risk for injuries.

Training on a stability ball is one way to work this group of hard-to-reach muscles. Even just by sitting on the ball, you’re able to activate the stabilizer muscles and improve your posture.

Those muscles become stronger over time to keep you balanced on and off the ball.

More than just a core workout!

While it’s true that many people associate stability balls with core work, there are many exercises you can do that will also engage your legs, and upper body to increase strength. SMART Stability balls can be a strength training tool for the rest of your body.

Stuck for workout ideas? Our Self-Guided products are the perfect solution.

Are you stuck in your current routine? Our innovative, self-guided SMART Stability Balls feature 13 exercises that are printed on the ball for easy reference, making it easy to create a challenging workout on your own.

Need a jump start? Here are three moves to try:

1. T’s, Y’s & I’s
2. Russian Twists
3. Mountain Climber/Push up with SMART Stability Ball Hold

Make the most of that extra hour of sleep!

Don’t let a lack of rest sabotage your workouts. Sleep deprivation not only affects your mind but also your physical body.

At one time or another, we’ve all experienced a sleepless night that left us irritable, off-kilter and exhausted. One night doesn’t do that much harm, but over time the long-term effects of sleep deprivation put many people at risk for mental, health, and physical problems.

Mental fog or memory issues are common among people who don’t get enough rest, but there are other consequences that can have negative effects on your fitness goals.

Studies show that people who do not get the recommended 7-8 hours per night are more likely to gain weight, experience high blood pressure and suffer from a weakened immune system—despite working out and being healthy in other areas such as eating right.

Not getting enough rest stops your body’s ability to defend itself from things like the cold or the flu. If you are sick, it takes longer to get better. Over time, the effects can lead to bigger issues like diabetes.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, experts have known for years that not getting enough rest is directly linked to your body hormone levels and the ability to regulate and metabolize glucose. People who do not get enough are at a higher risk for weight gain and type 2 diabetes.

Sleep deprivation increases the levels of insulin after you eat. Higher levels of insulin increase fat storage and your risk for diabetes.

Your body needs more than a healthy diet and exercise.

When you sleep your body is hard at work repairing and resetting itself and when you don’t get enough sleep it can’t do that. Bottom line—without rest your body systems don’t work as they should. Multiple studies show that getting less than 6-8 hours of sleep increases the risk of early death by 12 percent.

Here are a few tips provided by the National Sleep Foundation:

• Stick to a sleep schedule all week long
  • Practice a relaxing bedtime ritual.
  • Exercise every day
  • Set your bedroom temperature, sounds, and light levels to promote sleep.
  • Choose a comfortable mattress and pillows.
  • Alcohol and caffeine are sleep stealers
  • Turn off electronics before bed and store them in a different room

SMART Recovery

3 Foam Rolling Moves for a better night’s sleep

Solid foam rollers contour to the body and provide mild compression to the area. Foam rollers release tightness and discomfort caused by sitting, poor posture sustaining the demands of a long day.

Try these moves in the last 15 minutes before bed to relieve stress-related trigger points which will help you catch your zzz’s better every night.

1. SPINE ROLL RELEASE
2. MID/UPPER BACK RELEASE
3. LOWER BACK RELEASE

Did you ever notice that when you miss a day or two of exercise, it suddenly gets even harder to get back at it in the following days? This is why consistency is the one key thing to meeting your fitness goals.

Keeping a regular schedule when it comes to exercise matters because when you end up skipping many days in a row, the health benefits start to fade away. At first, there may be only a decrease in the positive metabolic aspects, but skipping exercise eventually affects motivation, endurance, and can even increase your odds of an injury.

Studies have shown that building momentum can be one of the primary reasons that people continue to exercise. People reported that they felt healthier and more physically aware after exercise or the exertions of the day before and desire to relive that sensation. Longer periods between exercise sessions could potentially dull that enthusiasm.

When your mind continually thinks it is starting over at square one after many days (or weeks/months) of skipping workouts, motivation will drop off.

The truth is that no matter what we do in life it will be hard to achieve the success we want unless we work at it day after day over the course of months and years. This is no different when it comes to your exercise programs. Even if you have the best trainer and fitness tools in the world, and the best diet to follow, but if you do not stick with it consistently, you may end up spinning your wheels.

Consistency is vital for the beneficial changes of exercise to occur in your body. When you keep at an activity, you perfect your form, build endurance and become better each time.

According to the Mayo Clinic of Sports Medicine, regular, consistent exercise stimulates the growth of new capillaries to bring blood to your muscles. It also takes weeks of strength training to grow muscle fibers. If you are hit or miss in your exercise routine, these physiologic changes will take longer to occur, and these changes will not be as powerful.

It takes 4 weeks for YOU to see your body changing.

It takes 8 weeks for YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY to see your body changing.

It takes 12 weeks for THE REST OF THE WORLD to see your body changing.

Remember, effort and intensity are nothing without consistency!

If you’re struggling for ideas, no worries! Our self-guided equipment makes it easy to come up with ideas.

Be sure to follow our YouTube channel for weekly workout ideas!

The term “functional fitness” has been all the buzz and for good reason. Functional fitness workouts are designed to train your muscles to prepare for everyday tasks by mimicking common movements like reaching, pulling, or squatting that you might do in daily life. Consistently engaging in these workouts can result in easier, safer, and more efficient performance in things like carrying in groceries, or playing tag with your kids. The focus of functional fitness is to improve quality of life through exercise.

Functional type exercises use multiple joints and multiple muscles. A squat is an example of functional exercise because it works to train the joints and muscles used when you stand up and sit down from a chair or lower down to pick up objects from the floor. Performing a squat fires up quads, glutes, and hamstrings, and hinges your knee, hip and ankle joints all at the same time.

Your Functional Fitness Toolbox

Functional workouts can be done almost anywhere. To make them even more fun, we put together a “Functional Fitness Toolbox” full of colorful Prism Fitness exercise equipment. 

1. SMART Core Wheel with Mat

The Smart Core Wheel delivers the best core workout for the entire core (not just abs!) with one tool. Strap your feet or grip the handles for a great core-focused workout.

2. SMART Indoor Ladder

The rubber Smart Indoor Ladder will help athletes of all levels improve their quickness, agility, coordination and control. This high-quality, versatile athletic training tool is also designed to be very easy to use and store.

3. SMART Stability Balls

The Smart Stability Balls are self-guided for users at all fitness levels. They feature 13 exercises that are printed on the ball for easy reference.

4. SMART Medicine Balls

The Smart Medicine Balls are a functional fitness staple. The weighted center forces the user to use different muscle groups to throw, bounce or twist with the ball.

8 exercises are printed on each ball for easy reference. They also feature a textured surface for a reliable grip and made of sturdy rubber.

5. Smart Straps Body Weight Training System

Finally, you won’t be staring at the dangling straps wondering what to do with it! 12 self-guided exercises printed directly on the straps for easy reference.

No more wrestling with floppy straps; easily place your foot in the pre-formed cuffs either facing down or facing up to perform even more core and leg exercises!

Be sure to follow our social feeds for workout ideas using our SMART line of Prism Fitness products.

Here’s a Cardio SMART Medicine Ball Workout for you to try!

1.  Jump Squat with Hold

2.  SMART Med Ball Burpee

3. Duck walk with backward shuffle

4. Side Knee Repeater

30 seconds each. 4 rounds. Repeat! ((Be sure to switch up those legs for the knee repeaters each round.))