Exercises on a fitball for infants

Exercises with a fitball can be an enjoyable and useful way to promote your baby’s physical development. These mild workouts are intended to foster playfulness and camaraderie while enhancing muscle strength, balance, and coordination.

Simple fitball exercises that you can do at home with your baby are available. They can help your child become more mobile and flexible while also acclimating to novel sensations like rolling and bouncing.

You can give your baby a gentle, calming workout and enhance the fun of tummy time by incorporating these activities into your routine. Additionally, it gives parents a chance to positively engage and interact with their infant.

Exercise	Description
Tummy Time	Place the baby on their tummy on the ball and gently rock it back and forth to strengthen neck and back muscles.
Back Stretch	Lay the baby on their back on the ball, holding them securely, and move the ball slowly side to side for gentle stretching.
Leg Press	Place the baby on their back, hold their feet, and gently press their legs against the ball to engage leg muscles.
Core Strength	Sit the baby upright on the ball while holding them, and lightly bounce to help develop balance and core strength.

Infants can benefit from fitball exercises as a gentle and enjoyable way to enhance their physical development. These exercises can help strengthen muscles, enhance balance, and promote coordination. In addition to strengthening the bond between parent and child, these activities can help the infant feel safe and at ease. Fitball exercises can be a quick and easy addition to a baby’s daily routine, supporting their general development and well-being when done under the right supervision and care.

Useful or harmful?

• helps relieve the symptoms of muscle hypertonicity, which are common to almost every child from birth to 5-6 months;
• the skeletal and muscular systems are strengthened;
• the weak abdominal wall of the baby is strengthened, which helps prevent or reduce the manifestations of infant colic;
• the vestibular apparatus develops, the child coordinates movements better;
• The child forms the correct production of the feet, proper posture;
• the state of the nervous system improves.

Selecting the appropriate ball is crucial if you want your child to benefit as much as possible from fitball exercises.

Smooth balls are the only ones appropriate for 2-3 month old children. Offering a baby for charging or gymnastics textured fitballs with pimples and ribs at 4-5 months of age will definitely have an extra massaging effect.

The size of the ball is also important. If you purchase it for yourself as well as the baby, choose a larger ball with a diameter of 75 cm so that you can rapidly get back into good physical shape after giving birth. 45 or 55 cm is plenty of diameter if the ball is only going to be used for the crumb.

Steer clear of Fitball Fitball that smell strongly. The child might experience severe allergies or chemical burns from the potentially harmful materials. A good, high-quality fitball for a baby has a smooth, non-slip surface. Verify if it has the ABS marking, which indicates that the tests have been passed and the ball won’t explode or burst while being used.

Do you already own a ball that satisfies safety regulations? Next, let’s examine the exercise methodology for infants under one year of age.

General rules and recommendations

First and foremost, parents must learn when is the best time to exercise with their child. For example, a baby participating in gymnastics should be well-fed, rested, and healthy. It’s not necessary to begin exercising right away after eating; instead, wait for about 1.5 hours after eating before beginning.

A relaxing set of exercises is best performed in the evening, right before taking a bath and going to bed, while general strengthening exercises that target stimulating muscle work, toning the child, and invigorating are best performed in the first half of the day. If you don’t consider the purpose of the exercise complexes, you risk upsetting the child’s daily schedule and making his sleep worse, which will negate the benefits of the exercises. The infant will feel exhausted because he won’t get enough sleep.

The exercises should be extended gradually; go from three to five minutes to fifteen to twenty minutes. Additionally, the workload should increase proportionately. Begin with one or two exercises, add new ones gradually, and extend the time allotted for completion of each task.

Throughout the exercises, give the child steady support to prevent him from falling off the gymnastic ball and getting hurt. You will not benefit from gymnastics, no matter how hard you try, if the child cries and is erratic, shows signs of exhaustion, or resists the exercise vehemently.

To ensure that the child understands that he is not being subjected to an unfamiliar ritual—which, incidentally, can be dangerous—always accompany the lesson with upbeat and carefree remarks, poems, or songs. The infant won’t start to appropriately and favorably perceive the classes until then.

Using a diaper to cover the fitball’s surface when working with an undressed baby will make it more comfortable for them. Do not overlook safety for even a moment. Falling from the fitball can be extremely painful and dangerous. Never leave the baby unattended.

Methods for performing the lesson

With a baby from 1.5 to 3 months

Among those using a fitball for exercise, this is the youngest age group. It’s crucial to use the most delicate, gentle form of gymnastics for these kids. Thus, groups of exercises targeted at lowering tone, preventing intestinal colic, and relaxing muscles are advised by experts. Other exercises are not yet necessary for the baby.

It’s very simple to do soothing exercises with a gymnastic ball for babies.

• Rolling on the stomach. Place the baby on a fitball with his stomach down, the head should also be turned on one cheek. Hold the baby by the back with one hand and by the legs with the other. Start gently swinging the ball to the right and left side alternately. Gradually complicate the exercise by adding swinging forward and backward, and then in a circle. Watch the speed and amplitude – the baby should not be frightened or rocked by anything. This exercise facilitates the removal of intestinal gases, reduces the intensity and frequency of colic, strengthens the abdominal muscles.

• Rolling on the back. After rolling on the stomach, move on to rolling on the back. Place the baby on the ball with his back, but so that the baby"s head does not fall back. Hold the baby by the tummy with one hand, fix the legs with the other. At first, it will be easy enough to swing the baby from side to side, then complicate the exercise similarly to the first. The technique helps to form posture, develop back muscles.

• Football for kids. The baby should be placed on the floor, on a special mat in a supine position. The fitball is placed against the legs and the ball wall is lightly pressed on the baby"s feet. The baby will reflexively push the ball away, thereby developing and strengthening the leg muscles. The increased tone due to intense but soft extension movements will decrease.

Steer clear of jumping exercises and ball rolling. The baby is too young to be sitting on a fitball; his spine is not developed enough for a vertical load.

With a child 4-6 months

At this age, you need to work on developing the muscle corset in addition to relaxing exercises. The baby will benefit from his favorite toys, which he has already managed to acquire. The series of exercises gets more complex and involves the baby’s active participation.

• "Get the toy". This is a more complicated version of rolling on the tummy, which was described in the complex for babies. After rolling the baby, making circular movements on the stomach, put a favorite toy on the floor in front of the football. The baby will reach for it, hold him tightly by the legs, fixing the back with the other hand. Stretching is important for the development of the lateral oblique muscles, as well as for stimulating the abs and muscles and the shoulder girdle. To ensure that the baby"s efforts are crowned with success, push the fitball slightly away from you so that the baby can reach the toy and firmly grasp it with his hands.

"Leaping." Fixing it, mom fixes the fitball between her legs while seated on the floor. She lifts and lowers the child with his feet on the ball while supporting him beneath her armpits; it’s crucial that the infant uses his feet to push off the ball. It is best to begin this type of exercise when the baby is five months old. However, you must make sure that the baby’s entire body weight does not rest on their legs.

• "Moving wheelbarrow". This is a version of the "Wheelbarrow" exercise, beloved by many children, in which the mother holds only the baby"s legs with her hands, and he "walks" along the floor with his hands. The difference will be that the baby will be sorting through the ball with his hands, moving it forward. The exercise develops the arms, chest, neck and upper back well.

For children over 6 months

Exercises for developing motor skills and agility are added to the two complexes mentioned above, making the exercises even more difficult for infants in this age group.

• "Goalkeeper". If the child can sit on his own, sit him opposite you and push the ball towards him. The child"s task is to catch it with both hands, and ideally – to push it back to mom. The exercise develops coordination of movements and logical abilities.
• "Jumps". Sit the child who has already begun to sit on the ball and hold him by the sides closer to the armpits. First, slightly move the ball with the child"s bottom to the right and left, back and forth. This will warm up and prepare the muscles of the buttocks and back. Then make light jumping movements on the fitball – the exercise helps develop the back muscles.
• "Snowball". This exercise is for infants who have begun to stand on their own. It will help in mastering the first steps. Place the child near the ball, help him grab the “ears” of the ball with his hands. On the other hand, fix the ball with your foot so that it does not roll forward at high speed. When the baby holds on tightly, begin to gradually move the ball forward, loosening the fixation with your foot. The child will gradually learn to step with his feet after the ball.

Helpful tips

The following tips are suggested by experts to make sure the product lasts as long as possible.

• Keep the fitball clean. Every day, wipe it with a damp clean cloth, and wash it twice a week with baby soap.
• Do not start doing more complex sets of exercises if the child has not yet reached the recommended age or has not mastered the exercises of the previous set.
• After classes, put the fitball away where the baby will not see it. If a bright and interesting "thing" appears once a day, it will be more entertaining than the usual, eyesore toy.
• To achieve more impressive results from home exercises with your baby, combine exercise and gymnastics on a fitball with massage. You should exercise on the ball after a massage, when the muscle groups are warmed up and ready for additional load.
• Before exercising on a fitball, it is important to consult a pediatrician to rule out contraindications to such manipulations in your child.

Contraindications

While there aren’t many reasons not to work out on a fitball, you should be aware of them nonetheless. It is preferable to deny your child exercise if they have:

• high temperature, teething;
• recovery period after an illness, severe weakness;
• diseases of the musculoskeletal system, paralysis and paresis (special therapeutic massage and exercise therapy complex are required);
• hydrocephalus;
• large umbilical or inguinal hernia (there is a risk of strangulation);
• congenital heart defects (exercise is possible, but only under the supervision of a doctor);
• birth injuries (training is not excluded, but only after consultation and prescription of a set of exercise therapy exercises by an orthopedist).

Exercises with a fitball can be a wonderful way to promote healthy movement and support an infant’s development. These easy exercises provide fun and interesting ways to increase muscle strength, coordination, and balance.

Fitball exercises should be done carefully, always making sure your child is secure and comfortable. Begin slowly and pay close attention to their responses at all times, making necessary adjustments.

Fitball exercises can help your baby grow physically and provide a great opportunity for bonding. Add them to your routine. Just keep in mind to have fun and keep the sessions lighthearted so that you and your child can both enjoy them.

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