The Red and Black

February 17th, 2008

When should I use a Stability Ball?

A lot of people like training with stability balls, wobble boards, and all of those so-called “functional” training devices. But the problem is, most folks incorporate them haphazardly into their workouts and never really know when to use them. So when DO you use them?

Your training routine should look like a time line, beginning with foundational training and then progressing to sports-specific training, which usually incorporates functional moves.

So whether your a man or a woman, athlete or non-athlete, the foundational-period shouldn’t consist primarily of wobble-board and functional exercises. Instead, you should be focusing on heavier, compound movements like the squat and bench press.

This is especially true if you’re trying to improve your golf game (or tennis game, let’s say). Both of these sports involve lots of rotational movements. Even so, the initial weeks of your workouts should include little (if any) rotational movements.

But after four weeks (or longer, depending on your goals and initial fitness level), you can start incorporating basic functional movements–but not the stability ball or wobble board (not yet).

By basic functional movements, I mean one or two exercises that mimic a sports-specific movement. So for our tennis or golf example, that might be a lunge with a loaded trunk rotation, a one-armed bench press (which involves more core stabilizer muscles), or Russian twists.

When you finally reach the sports-specific cycle, that’s the time to pull out the stops and bring in the wobble-board and stability balls. That way, you’re body has developed a foundation of strength, has been introduced to various functional moves (which may be later adapted in some way or another, like performing Russian twists ON a stability ball after you master the regular version), and then finally has progressed to very sports-specific movements.

Even if you’re not training for a specific sport, the same general principle applies. You want to start with compound movements and then progress by manipulating sets and reps towards a final phase that fully targets your fitness goal, whether it’s fat loss via circuit training and intense cardio or muscle mass via 8-12 repetitions per set.

So what happens after you finish? Well-earned rest. Take a week or two off. You’ve earned it.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 12:34 am and is filed under Fitness Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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