Death by exercise ball

So as most of you know, I've turned into some sort of gym rat.

I know, I know, bizarre. But weirder things have happened. (I can't think of any one specific thing right now, but I will get back to you on this.)

Last night my trainer had me do squats with an exercise ball. Sort of something like the squats pictured here:

But wait, am not done describing the squat. I said "sort of" because my feet were not firmly on the floor, as the woman's feet are in the picture above. While doing the squats with the ball on my back, I was standing on this:
So not only was I squatting on an uneven surface, I was trying to keep my back straight while doing the squats. I'm not sure I am getting the thought across (if only I had a picture of the entire squat (i.e. full ball behind my back while standing on the half ball) it would have been simpler, but I couldn't find one (Google Images, you've failed me!).

Anyway...

Backtrack. Maybe I should have started with the half ball...

If you squat with the half ball the natural position the body takes is sort of like this:



Note that the back leans forward for balance. Add the ball on your back and things get funky.

I realize that thus far this post doesn't quite capture the imbalance I felt while doing this exercise. But maybe this will help. Try to imagine that feeling the moment you slip or fall, that millisecond when you try to balance yourself, try to find your center of gravity. You try really hard to recover for that one millisecond, all your muscles working at once to prop you up, but then you fall anyway.

Now imagine being constantly in that state of trying to regain balance.

Funky.