Grab a Balloon! Leveling Up Your Core Exercises with Core PT & Performance

Make your core exercises more effective.

If you’re looking to make your core workouts more effective without fancy equipment, grab a balloon. Adding a balloon to your breathing and strengthening exercises is a simple but powerful way to challenge your abdominal muscles and diaphragm. It helps train your body to manage pressure more effectively — which is key for building strength, improving stability, and protecting your pelvic floor.

Before adding a balloon, it’s important to make sure you have a solid foundation in what’s called a 360° breathing pattern — a breath that expands evenly through your ribs, sides, and back (not just your chest or belly). This ensures your diaphragm, deep abdominals, and pelvic floor are working together as a team. If you’re unsure how to do this, watch our 360° Breathing video before starting.

As you begin experimenting with balloon breathing, keep these key points in mind:

• If you notice shallow or strained breathing, the balloon might be too challenging for now.

• You should not feel downward pressure or bearing down in your pelvic floor — stop and reset if you do.

• If you have diastasis recti, monitor your midline for bulging or pushing out. This indicates you’re not managing your intra-abdominal pressure correctly.

  
  

A simple way to start is with a basic balloon breathing drill. Try lying on your back or side, or in a comfortable seated or hands-and-knees position. Inhale, expanding your ribs and sides in a full 360° breath. As you exhale, begin from the pelvic floor up — think gentle kegel and light lower-abdominal tension — then blow into the balloon. Repeat for about five slow, controlled breaths, focusing on maintaining that gentle lift through your core and avoiding any bearing down.

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can start adding balloon breathing to your core exercises to make them more dynamic and effective. Think about incorporating it into movements like planks, bird dogs, or dead bugs. Here’s how:

• Inhale to prepare with a 360° breath.

• Engage your lower abs and pelvic floor slightly.

• Exhale through the movement into the balloon, keeping your ribs down and avoiding pressure into the pelvic floor.

• Move slowly and intentionally — stop if you feel dizzy or lightheaded.

  
  

Balloon breathing adds a surprising level of difficulty because it challenges your pulmonary system, core coordination, and pressure control all at once. It teaches your body how to maintain stability under load — something that translates directly to better movement, posture, and performance in your day-to-day life.

If you find that you’re struggling to get it right, feeling any bulging or bearing down, or just unsure whether you’re doing it correctly, we can help. At Core PT & Performance, we work with clients to retrain breathing patterns, strengthen from the inside out, and build true, sustainable core control.

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