That noise you might have heard recently was me scratching my head when I was presented with this item.
Alright. It’s a big, blow-up ball. What do I do with it? From what I can see from the picture on the box it came in, what you do is, er, sit on it.
Okay, the very fit and very athletic looking lady in the picture on the box is holding something while she sits on it – some sort of hand weights I think – but that seems to be it.
Well, if that’s all you have to do I’m all in. Except of course I’ll sit on it while I’m holding a coffee or, if it’s a special occasion, a gin and tonic.
Anyway. At that point, Mrs P decided I was just being a smart-arse.
If I wasn’t interested in trying to get some fitness or health benefits out of the big green ball then she’d just go it alone, she hissed. “Besides, my masseur said it might do me some good,” she casually tossed in to get my dander up.
It worked.
Anyway. He recommended the big ball and, as I say, we’ve now got one.
From what I’ve seen so far the only benefit Mrs P has been getting out of it is by literally rolling over face-down on it to stretch out her back.
As for me getting any benefits health and fitness-wise, well. That’s a different story entirely.
For starters, this big green ball doesn’t arrive inflated.
You have to pump it up yourself which, if you don’t have a mechanical portable inflator in your back pocket, or boot of the car as the case may be, could leave you with a bit of a problem.
No need to panic. The makers of the ball have solved the issue and provided us with a nifty little hand pump which will do the job just fine.
All you need to do is slot the pointy end into the appropriate valve in the ball and then start pumping.
About 1,764,349 pumps should do the trick. That’s with your right hand obviously. You’ll still need to do the same with your left hand.
Secondly, the sight of My Beloved’s rear end facing the sky as she rolls over the ball is enough to get the heart racing so I suppose you could say that’s of some benefit. I certainly enjoyed it, that’s for sure.
Then there’s the fact I had to chase the damn thing through a campground once the wind took hold of it.
On and on it went with my efforts to close the distance between us hampered somewhat by my dodgy hip.
I ended up calling out for assistance as the rolling sphere started to head out the main gate. Thankfully, several other campers leapt into the fray and secured the beast, so the crisis was averted.
Thankfully, they all thought it was tremendously funny and, as we all know, laughter is the best medicine so I suppose you could say there was some benefit in that episode too.
Plus, I got to run around a bit, which is a bit of a rarity these days and all good for the health.
When I did manage to manhandle the ball back to our caravan, I realised I couldn’t leave it outside in the wind and risk a repeat performance. It would have to come inside with us.
That’s when I discovered I’d pumped it up too big and it wouldn’t fit through the door.
Well, not without a significant bit of pushing, shoving, squeezing, grunting and groaning, which, in a way, you could say was a significant workout in itself.
So, all in all, our new large green ball has actually proven itself a winner already, even though I’ve not actually used it to do a traditional exercise session.
Maybe I’ll just sit on it with a nice cup of coffee and consider my options.
