Bad reaction to a peanut (Pro Fitness Peanut Stability Ball)

Member Name: Tracy_1127

Product:	Pro Fitness Peanut Stability Ball
Date:	10/03/09 (118 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see review

Disadvantages: see review

Recently I decided to buy a Peanut shaped stability ball and while trawling the internet for one I found this Pro Fitness one on ebay for £7.98 including p&p. I bought it immediately and looked forward to its arrival.

What is it?
The peanut stability balls are particularly useful for those of us in rehabilitation. So for people like me with injuries they are supposed to be a safer alternative than the traditional round stability balls. This is because if you lay on the peanut with it behind you widthways you only have to control the forward and back movement of the peanut and not the side to side movement and if you lay on it lengthways you only have to control the side to side movement and not the forward and backwards instability as well. This makes it less likely you will fall off and enables the user to train certain directions at one time so you get more proficient at those before moving onto the round ball.

What does it come with and how big is it?
The dimensions of this one are 90cm long and 45cm high. That isn't very high but as I only wanted to use it for a couple of exercises it seemed adequate. It comes with a small leaflet of exercises and a foot pump which I didn't use, my partner blew mine up with a rechargeable pump we use on the car tyres.

What can you do on it?
Anything you can do on the round ball you do on the peanut. All exercises can be done using the peanut as your unstable base to encourage core activity and if for example you needed to pick the ball up between your ankles etc you would just use one of the rounder ends. The centre has a kind of waist so you should fit on there for laying exercises widthways.

Good features?
It's burst resistant which is always a plus! It should be safer than a round ball and they are great for kids who need help with their balance as they just climb right on and think they are playing while they are actually helping their balance. It is also inexpensive.

Bad features?
This is where the review goes wrong. I wanted to say wonderful things about this peanut but I can't. The Pro Fitness one blows up with one end fuller than the other. This of course means the waist area in the centre slopes down on one side so you can't get into a neutral position to use it. To blow it up using the foot pump would take ages and I recommend anyone inflating a peanut should look at powered tyre pumps to save energy and time. In fact I also recommend buying a different brand of peanut because of the way it inflates with one end higher off the ground than the other, they are not supposed to do that and if they do they can't be used for core stability exercises.

My experiences.
After inflating the peanut I could immediately see the shape wasn't quite right. I tried everything to get more air into the end that needed it and make it useable. Nothing worked and after spending time squeezing and manipulating the peanut I decided to see if I could do anything with it at all. Even laying on it lengthways didn't work out because I couldn't lay flat and therefore couldn't achieve the necessary neutral spine. I'm very disappointed as I really needed one of these to help with my exercises and I know some other brands blow up perfectly well because I've previously used them.

I don't recommend buying a Pro Fitness version unless you just want a cheap peanut for kids to play on, it really is a case of you get what you pay for and if you need it for rehab exercises look at the more expensive versions.

Very disappointed.

Summary: Buy another brand if you want one for exercises