A simple rubber ball is all you need to firm your neck and chin. Don’t waste money on store or mail-order products that use weights, springs, or weird-looking gadgets to firm up a double chin or flabby neck. You probably have a small-sized rubber ball lying around the house already, so wash it and put it to use as a beauty tool.
What Kinds of Balls Work Best?
For the chin and neck area, start with a low-density foam ball such as Nerf brand or a less expensive foam or rubber comparable found at www.nextag.com. Don’t go shopping yet, though. Ask friends and neighbors if they have a spare foam or rubber ball lying around. The smallest size that will work for the neck area would be the size of a tennis ball. The largest size would be that of a grapefruit.
Begin by using a softer, squishy ball so that weak neck muscles are not strained, and gradually work up to a firmer ball offering more resistance.
How to Exercise the Neck and Chin
Place the ball below your chin and below the larynx. Hold the ball in place with your hand, and use your chin to press down on the ball. Squeeze the ball gently downward with your chin. Do as many repetitions as you are comfortable with, stopping before your neck muscles get tired. After repetitions, do some stretching exercises to relax the neck muscles, but do not try to stretch the skin of the neck. Normal left-right and rolling motions of the head should suffice.
Keep the ball in your desk at work, or beside the TV remote. Use spare moments to exercise with the ball you keep handy. As your neck muscles strengthen, add some difficulty to your exercise by pressing and holding the ball down with your chin, counting to 10 before releasing the ball. Do this from time to time during the series of squeeze repetitions and relaxation stretches. When it becomes too easy for your neck muscles to compress the soft ball, begin using a firmer and/or larger diameter ball.
Try adding diagonal compressions to your exercise routine. Hold the ball an inch or so to the left of the sub-larynx position, turn the head slightly, and press the ball down with your chin. This will exercise some additional muscles in the side of the neck. Then move the ball to the right side and work that area.
Exercising with Ordinary Rubber Balls
There are many parts of the body that can benefit from compression exercises using rubber balls of various sizes. Squeezing a larger rubber ball between the knees while seated at a desk or watching TV will strengthen the inner thigh muscles and reduce that puffy area on the inside of the knee. Medium to large rubber balls can be placed under each armpit and compressed using the upper arm, firming up the flabby skin on the underside of the arm.
Squeeze a small rubber ball in your hand to strengthen fingers and gently limber up arthritic hands. Experiment all over the body with gentle compressions, targeting and toning muscle groups using the resistance of larger foam or rubber balls. You’ll discover natural ways to tone and strengthen neck, arm and leg muscles using ordinary and inexpensive balls.
