Chest Stretch on Stability Ball
How to do the chest stretch on stability ball
- Get on your hands and knees next to an exercise ball.
- Place your elbows on top of the ball, keeping your arm out to your side. This will be your starting position.
- Lower your torso towards the floor, keeping your elbow on top of the ball. Hold the stretch for 20-30 seconds, and repeat with the other arm.
Muscles worked
The muscle under tension is the pectoralis major, which drives the upper arm forward and across the body.
A stretch loads it at the far end of the range it normally works in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.
Every exercise for:Chest
How this movement works
You get into position and hold. One joint sets the angle and one muscle group takes the tension, so the load stays exactly where you put it. Hold for time, breathe normally, and come out the moment the position drifts: a shape that has quietly shifted is no longer training what you set it up to train.
It is filed under stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.
What you need
The exercise ball is an unstable base on purpose. It shortens the leverage you can hold and demands constant small corrections, so the trunk works even when the movement is aimed elsewhere.
Every exercise using:Exercise ball
These train the chest too, using equipment this one does not:
- Clock Push-Upbody only
- Close Grip Barbell Bench Pressbarbell
- Cross Over - With Bandsband
- Decline Barbell Bench Pressbench + barbell
- Decline Chest Pressmachine
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 105 chest exercises in this database, 63 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.