Note: This is a loose transcription of the video ‘How to get Primal on a Swiss Ball! – Part 5/5 – Kneeling Dumbbell Overhead Press ‘.
Brad: Hey guys, this is part 5 of How to Get Primal on a Swiss Ball. The next exercise or movement I want to show you is doing a kneeling dumbbell alternating shoulder press.
Swiss Ball Kneeling Dumbbell Overhead Press
The first progression that I use to get a client to be able get to do the full exercise is to first be able to do a dumbbell shoulder press sitting on a ball. It doesn’t sound that tough, but it can be, depending on how to do it. So, you can do it with two arms, but we’re doing a one-arm alternating one; that’s the goal as I want to get people to activate their core.
Draw your belly button towards your spine. Lift your chest up nice and high and then do the same movement as what you would be doing when you are on your knees on the ball. You can make that harder by lifting the opposite leg, or lift the same side-leg to activate more muscles that should help prevent you from falling off the ball.
B: Supported Kneeling on Swiss Ball
The next thing you would need to be able to do is kneel on the ball. So I recommend you do it somewhere where you can hold onto something firm and get up on the ball on both legs. Get used to not having to rely on sitting back down on your heels, which is a lot easier position to sit, in comparison to actually being up off your butt. Hold onto something like that and just get used to being able to purposely push forwards and backwards, side to side so that you can start to get your muscles used to, and get your nervous system used to, the movements that are going to take place when you’re actually on the ball. Hands on, Hands off, Hands on, Hands off. Get used to that and then also put your feet, dig them into the ball, so that they act like a rudder. Then purposely kick your feet back so that you’re not having to use your feet to help you with your balance. Once you can do that, then you can go onto the next stage.
C: Unsupported Kneeling on Swiss Ball
So after you have gotten proficient at holding onto something when you’re balancing on the ball, next you want to be able to get up on the ball without anything to hold onto. Perhaps, someone needs to hold onto the ball for the first time to ease your mind a little bit, but you can also do it from this way. Get your knees onto the ball and hands onto the ball like that, then roll forward. Balance in that position there, roll it forward far enough to where your feet dig into the ball and then slowly rise up there like that. Chest up, shoulders back, stomachs sucked in.
D: Kneeling Dumbbell Alternating Overhead Press
Once you can do this proficiently, and you know that rolling forward and backwards, you’ve got the ability to able to switch on the muscles that you need to get you back to the proper centre of balance, this is when you should then be able to grab onto a dumbbell – nice and light first up, and then be able to actually do the exercise. So for me, I’ve got about 12 kg here, so about 25-26-27 pounds and then from there, one arm up, switch your stomach all nice and tight. Press straight up there like that, and then alternate.
And that’s it! That’s part 5 of 5 on How to Get Primal on a Swiss ball. Hope you’ve enjoyed it!
Other videos in this series:
How to Get Primal on a Swiss Ball – Part 1/5: 4 Point Horse Stance
How to Get Primal on a Swiss Ball – Part 2/5: Prone and Supine Balance
How to Get Primal on a Swiss Ball – Part 3/5: Primal Push-Ups
How to Get Primal on a Swiss Ball – Part 4/5: Swiss Ball Squats
What’s your favourite swiss ball exercise?
How to Get Primal on a Swiss Ball – Part 5/5: Kneeling Overhead Press – September 2013
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