Michael Ro
Mon, Aug-12-02, 23:02
This article is from an unknown author with my comments in <>.
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Stability and Balance Training: Performance Training or
Circus Acts?
The resurgence of functional training has forced many
strength and conditioning professionals to reexamine many of
the traditional concepts. At times, arguments and discussions
regarding functional training have grown heated. What is
interesting is that some of the time, strength and
conditioning professionals may be arguing about a topic they
agree on - they just don't know it. One of the topics
surrounded by heated discussion is the use of unstable
training environments for performance enhancement.
<<Many of the so-called "professional certification groups"
have been advocating ball and wobble board training many times
in very dangerous situations. None of these agencies have ever
provided, nor will they ever provide, research to back their
claims of greater strength, more functional strength or
whatever they wish to make up that particular
day>>
Some of the confusion may revolve around the assumption that
functional training exclusively uses stability and balance
training in unstable environments to enhance strength and
performance. Furthermore, some fitness professionals may have
inadvertently projected the wrong image of what functional
training is by performing exercises that more closely
resemble circus acts and calling them functional strength
exercises (e.g., squatting a 135-pound barbell while standing
on a stability ball).
<<I recently watched a certified trainer perform, and I use
this word exactingly, perform a standing-on-the-ball overhead
press. He fell with the 20 pound DB barely missing his head.
=============================================================
Stability and Balance Training: Performance Training or
Circus Acts?
The resurgence of functional training has forced many
strength and conditioning professionals to reexamine many of
the traditional concepts. At times, arguments and discussions
regarding functional training have grown heated. What is
interesting is that some of the time, strength and
conditioning professionals may be arguing about a topic they
agree on - they just don't know it. One of the topics
surrounded by heated discussion is the use of unstable
training environments for performance enhancement.
<<Many of the so-called "professional certification groups"
have been advocating ball and wobble board training many times
in very dangerous situations. None of these agencies have ever
provided, nor will they ever provide, research to back their
claims of greater strength, more functional strength or
whatever they wish to make up that particular
day>>
Some of the confusion may revolve around the assumption that
functional training exclusively uses stability and balance
training in unstable environments to enhance strength and
performance. Furthermore, some fitness professionals may have
inadvertently projected the wrong image of what functional
training is by performing exercises that more closely
resemble circus acts and calling them functional strength
exercises (e.g., squatting a 135-pound barbell while standing
on a stability ball).
<<I recently watched a certified trainer perform, and I use
this word exactingly, perform a standing-on-the-ball overhead
press. He fell with the 20 pound DB barely missing his head.