Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Get Off the Ball

There are plenty of good uses for stability balls, most of which involve core work.

The other day I used one for a core move that involves putting your feet on the ball with your hands on the floor in a pushup position. Keeping your core braced, in other words not sagging in the middle, you pike up your hips, pulling the ball forward. Then walk your hands out a couple of steps so you're back in the pushup position. Repeat. It's tough.

But too many trainers seem to believe they're a good way to make workouts exciting. So they use stability and Bosu balls, those half stability balls, in some pretty dumb ways. At my gym, for instance, I so often see a trainer make a newbie do squats on the Bosu ball. I've yet to see a client do the squat properly, and it makes me want to yell, "Teach them to do bodyweight squats on the ground before you even think about using a Bosu ball."

Super trainer Craig Ballantyne agrees.

2 comments:

twin said...

I use the bosu ball & the stability ball to do push-ups. (hands on the bosu, feet on the stability ball) Helps me work on balance.....needed for pop ups.

Erle Norton said...

Those are excellent uses of the bosu and the stability ball. I use them for plenty of things too -- it's just that they can easily be misused too.