Tuesday, April 24, 2007

balance training no circus tricks needed.






You may have seen them before, people in the gym that believe that they are training for the circus. They hop up on to a stability ball and start doing a number of different exercises. You think to your self two things one are they training for the circus and two that must really be great. Or three like me what a stupidly reckless thing to do.

Does it create better athletes, or train more strength ? The best answer is no it does not. This is for a number of reasons.


  1. It is super high risk for the benefit. There are many better pieces of equipment that train balance compared to standing on a ball or even a Bosu trainer for that matter.
  2. your feet are in a bad anatomical position, you tell me one sport that your feet need to be everted. Think real hard. I cannot think of one. So you may be training some balance but you are also training bad bio mechanics of the body. This can and will over time cause issues.
  3. It an ego thing... and truth be told not all that hard to do. It is not even as hard as a full squat on one leg in a pistol position.

So if you see some one doing this ask them if they are training for the circus.

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