Customer Reviews

GoFit 65cm Professional Stability Ball

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have been sitting in the exact same chair at work for almost five years, and recently, my body had started to complain about it. I had the idea of sitting on an exercise ball for a large part of the day, and shopped around a little before getting this one. After three weeks of sitting on it almost 10 hours a day, I couldn't be happier. Physically, I feel much better, and the ball itself seems to be holding up extremely well. I am about 5'6", and this ball is the perfect size for me to sit on. It holds its air well, and I haven't had any issues regarding a rubbery smell (which I hear can happen with these things). I definitely recommend this.

I took a look at quite a few stability balls before buying this one. I wanted a ball that could handle weightlifting excercises and the use of heavier dumbbells while still feeling secure under my body. This unit fits the bill very well. It is very good quality. I had no problem pumping it up with the supplied pump. It has held the air very well since I pumped it up. The included DVD is a nice added touch for those who like to have pictured step by step instructions. There is no lasting rubber smell that I can detect. I am very pleased with this purchase. I had also followed up with GOFIT customer support prior to my purchase to get some additional information and to see how they respond, and it was a good experience. Thumbs up on this product.

I am writing this review for those who are interested in using this ball as a chair.

REASON FOR PURCHASE

Since I sit for extended periods of time (e.g. 3 -4 hours at a time), I needed a chair that would provide excellent back support and force me to sit up straight. Sitting in folding chairs has resulted in aches to my lower back and pain to my posterior.

This ball fit that criteria to a "T".

PERFORMANCE

The ball is extremely durable, having thick walls. The ball is not slippery and retains a firm grip on a surface with a rug. I periodically bounce up and down on the ball and it has retained its shape for over a week without losing air.

RESULTS

After the past 1.5 weeks, I literally feel stronger. The first few days I felt quite sore. This can be attributed to using "core" muscles that I never strain. Now, my back feels great. As an runner, I even feel my performance has improved.

PROS

strengthens back
soft cushion does not pain behind
fun to bounce up and down
cost next to nothing when compared to a "high-end" chair that claims miracles
easily portable

CONS

your boss might not allow you to sit on it at work
if you have no balance, you may fall over (probably a rare occurrence)
ball is red NOT purple, as shown in picture

MISC

Height: 5 ft 9
Weight: Slim
Ownership: ~2 weeks

I've had this for about a week. I'm over 240 lbs and have been on this ball for over 30 minutes each day. It's held up even with heavy bouncing. I've had shoudler surgery, so this really helps with some exercises that normally would be impossible. It's a good ball, with minor odor that goes away in a couple of days. I haven't watched the dvd, but I'll get to that this weekend. Right now I'm mainly doing therapy with it.

Update: 11-19-10. The ball is still up and running. I've been using it now 2-3 times per week for 30 minutes plus. The odor finally went away. I gave it a 4 out of 5 because of the inital odor and that you need special pliers to remove the plug to refill air or deflate it. I think the plug will be the part that eventualy fails. My ball came in the purple color that was the image.

IMPORTANT: It has been pointed out to me by two other reviewers that the purple product pictured here is NOT the one being sold! The purple ball pictured is a GoFit 65 cm Premium; if you order the model being sold on this page, you'll get a GoFit 65 cm Professional (with an increased burst-resistance of 2,500 lbs. but only available in a lame girly-red color men don't like). The Premium (and more manly purple) ball is slightly lower cost and has a burst resistance of 1,000 lbs.; it is the one I own and what I based my original review on. Usually, manufacturers color-code their balls by size. If you buy a ball (regardless of brand) that is not the right color, you need to check to make sure it really is the right size (a blank measuring tape should be included in the box, but you should double-check it with your own numbered tape measure just to be sure). Sometimes these companies, who all outsource their product manufacturing to China, unknowingly get a bad batch where the balls are the wrong size/wrong color but are sold as the right size, and sometimes they are the right color but the wrong size. I went through three other brands of balls that had these problems (detailed below) before getting lucky with the GoFit. Hopefully, this never happens to you, especially if you are ordering online.

The GoFit 65cm Premium (purple) core stability ball is one of the best on the market. I had bad luck trying balls by three other companies: Altus (smelled horrible like a toxic waste dump, was the wrong size [55 cm] ball instead, foot pump broke after a few minutes), Valeo and Everlast (both wrong 55 cm size, pumps didn't work or broke before full inflation). So I was stoked when the GoFit actually inflated to the right size! GoFit is a very sturdy ball, tough enough for big guys who want to lift weights on it, plus it doesn't have that toxic chemical smell some other balls do. My only complaints, and the reasons I'm not giving it a five-star rating, are the included foot pump is pretty crappy (no surprise) and the exercise DVD, while providing a good, tough, easy-to-understand workout (by a hot lady with a southern accent), skips over doing the opposite side of all alternating side exercises so you have to stop and pause the disk repeatedly in order to complete the workout. This sucks because I would much rather be able to just do it straight through. I suppose that becomes less of an issue if you memorize the workout, but I fail to see how the extra 10 minutes or so showing the alternate side exercises would have hurt the company. One other gripe: one of the exercises requires you to have two stability balls, but there is no way I'm going to buy two of these things just to do one exercise so I used dumbbells instead to get around this. All in all, however, the GoFit ball is an excellent choice and a product that stands head and shoulders above the competition, at least in my experience.

For those of you interested in an even tougher, dumbbell-heavy workout using one of these balls, I highly recommend getting the Men's Health: 15 Minute Workout. Note that this workout teaches you to cross-train your muscles with different weight dumbbells at the same time (so, for example, one 10 lb. and a 20 lb., or a 5 lb. and a 10 lb., whatever is comfortable for you). Just thought I'd mention this fact before you order it that for those of you starting out who may only have one matching set of dumbbells.

You also might want to pick up a cheap workout mat or exercise ball base because the ball will often roll around (and possibly slip out from under you) if you just use it on the carpet; that could be dangerous for some users but is a problem all these balls share. One cheap, but less than perfect option, that I've found is to angle some of my heavier dumbbells on the floor so the ball won't roll around as much (at least not backward).

This is a GREAT stability ball! I should note however that when mine arrived it was red instead of purple (as shown), but I actually preferred this. The ball itself is extremely thick and very durable. Once inflated (which yes can take awhile) it holds its own and doesn't buckle under weight. I use this ball for weightlifting and exercises and for the first time ever, I feel stable lifting weights on a stability ball. The ball is sturdy enough to support you and yet give a little too in the right ways. This is a great ball for anyone looking for a sturdier, more durable stability ball. This was a great price and shipped very fast, in fact I got it the next day!

There are no instructions for inflation however most recommend you fill the ball 80-85% full, let it set for 24 hours and then top it off to about 90-95% and let it set again so that the plastic adjusts. Never fill the ball more than 95% of its maximum diameter (in this case 65cm).

This is a good, very solid ball and seems to be of much higher quality than a ball I bought at Wal-mart that went flat. I would recommend this ball and am planning to buy 2 more as gifts.

As far as the contents of the box, the plug was missing for the ball and there were no instructions on how to blow it up. I went to the company website and filled out the contact form and they mailed 2 plugs free of charge the very next day and I had them in less than a week. I also found that the plug I saved from the Wal-mart ball also worked. The customer service wrote this: "Sometimes the ball plug is already in the ball - it is white & hollow in the middle similar to a golf tee - other times it may be taped to the inside of the box by the DVD..."

I followed instructions from the Wal-mart ball to inflate it to 80 inches, and the last few inches are a lot of work to finish it off. The pump worked very well for me, a woman, but broke the first time my husband tried to pump to help me. It glued back together solidly with epoxy and I was able to use it again, but had to do all of the pumping myself.

I give the ball itself 5 stars, but the packaging and pump were not so great and I'd give those only 2 or 3 if I could split up my rating.

Update: I bought 3 more of these to give as gifts and all 3 arrived with the plugs included, so I think I had an unusual experience with the first ball.

I haven't tried the DVD yet so no feedback on that, but I really like the ball itself.

Being my first stability ball, I was a little worried about it being able to hold me (a BIG girl at 5'8" & approx. 260 lbs), but it does, and I can already feel/see the difference.

It was easy fill, and has lost very little pressure over a couple of weeks worth of daily use. It lost enough to open up & pump back up, but nothing like some of the horror stories below.

The color wasn't as shown, which was fine with me - not trying to color coordinate my excercise equipment or anything . . .

We purchased the so called Professional Stability Ball and it has leaked since we received it. The air inlet leaks and make the ball not functional.

This is my first experience with an exercise ball and it exceeded my expectations. Inflating it with the hand pump wasn't as difficult or time consuming as I anticipated, and the ball seems as durable as promised. I made this purchase primarily to do back exercises, and simply sitting on it and giving my spine freedom of movement feels great. I plan on using this to sit at my desk as well as doing exercises. I bought a base for the ball which hasn't arrived yet, but I didn't experience any problems with the ball slipping out from under me while on a carpeted area. They do need to change the product description to indicate that you'll be getting a red ball, not a purple one, but the shade of red looks nice too.