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In gyms and at home, they're using what are called stability balls, Swiss balls, balance balls, physio balls and fitness balls to get an added benefit from just about every kind of workout.

"It works on the midsection, the core of your body," said Debby Johnston, an instructor at the YMCA in Greensburg. "If you have strong abdominal muscles, you will have a strong back. It increases your muscle tone and increases your flexibility, and everybody thinks it's a lot of fun to use."

The fitness ball was made by an Italian toy company about 50 years ago and was soon picked up for clinical use by a spinal rehabilitation doctor in Switzerland. It made its way into American clinics in the 1980s, and by the early 1990s, it was being used by sports trainers everywhere.

Locally, the trend is still bouncing along, attracting everyone from infants in Mommy and Me classes to fitness fanatics in their 70s.

"You can do all kinds of things on the ball, even adding weights, but even without the weights you can get a total body workout," Johnston said. "The stability ball is good for the young, the old, for children, and for people who are overweight. It's easy on people who had knee surgery, and it's being used in physical therapy."

Mothers and their preteen daughters have taken classes together at the Y, and Kim Svidrom, group exercise director at The Aerobic Center at Lynch Field, in Greensburg, has taught pregnant women and people in their 70s.

"I like the ball because it's lower impact, not like the workouts where you're bouncing constantly," she said. "People who have knee problems, or lower back problems, can get a high-intensity workout in a lower-impact situation when they use the balls."

Fitness expert Paul Frediani is so sold on the value of the balls that he wrote about them in two books,

"Powersculpt for Men" and "Powersculpt for Women."

"This is a great tool and I don't see any piece of equipment that's as functional," he said in a phone interview from New York City, where he is a trainer at the Equinox Fitness Club.

"When you're working on a machine, your stabilizing muscles are not engaged," he said. "A machine has its own pathways, and when you push something on a machine, it's one plane, regardless of how tall or how short you are. You don't have to stabilize on those machines, you just engage muscles and push in one direction."

On the other hand, he said, the exercise balls engage the back, butt and abdominal muscles that support you when you're pushing a baby carriage or grabbing something from the top of the closet.

Frediani, 52, boxed as a teenager. About 14 years ago he was looking for a way to earn a living from doing something he loved.

"I was in the right place at the right time," he said. "I became a boxing instructor at Equinox, which is now a national chain, and got into personal training, which was just evolving."

It used to be only movie stars and wealthy people used personal trainers, but now clients are coming from all walks of life.

And that's not all that has changed in the fitness world. "When you look back, you can see how very little we knew about exercise physiology," Frediani said. "The advancement of it as a science is incredible. We are just learning more and more about the human body, and a lot of exercises that at one time were considered great are no longer indicated. For instance, when you hold your neck when you do crunches, that can create a dysfunction in the neck, and your neck gets weaker and your abdomen gets stronger. That can result in a forward-head posture."

Half of Frediani's clients are over 50. Some have been postponing fitness for so long, they just want to get started from scratch.

"That's the good news," he said. "The bad news is that they have created a lot of bad habits. But the people who are that poorly conditioned can get very rapid results. For them, it's almost like a miracle."

It takes some time to get used to the exercise ball.

"The first time you get on it and start to do leg lifts, you almost fall off," Johnston said. "The people just starting say they can't sit on the ball, but we were all at that point at one time."

All kinds of workouts can be adapted to the ball.

You can sit on it and do free weights for the biceps and triceps, and do leg raises sitting up or while lying over top of it.

"You can do leg curls, hip extensions, squats, calf raises, push-ups, and work on the inner thighs," Johnston said.

Svidrom likes the way the ball supports the lower back. "When you're lying on the floor, your back is up or not pressed to the floor," she said. "And people who are not conditioned do so much better using the ball."

The balls are available in department or sporting goods stores, and can be ordered over the Internet, beginning at around $10. Some come with hand pumps or can be inflated with bicycle pumps and then easily deflated for storage.

That makes them ideal to take along on a vacation.

"I've seen so many things come and go, so many fads," Frediani said, "but this one is going to stay."

Anyone interested in stability balls can check out the classes at the YMCA. "You can get a free week's membership and come in and take a free class," Johnston said. Call 724-834-0150.

The first class at The Aerobic Center is free, and there is a $5 charge for walk-in sessions. Call 724-834-2153.

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