Stability Balls (was Stagger Stance Good Mornings)

[Guest guest]

Gabe wrote:

<< [on your web site, you state:] " Stability balls allow you to effectively

train the nervous system and stabilizer muscles and have great carry-over

value for sport and advanced activities requiring balance. " Do you have any

research supporting this claim? >>

Gabe, thanks for visiting our site and for bringing this statement to the

forefront.

In my own experience working with female outdoor athletes, endurance

athletes, elderly folks, and mountaineers, I have indeed seen substantial

improvement in balance and strength by incorporating stability ball

exercises into classes and workout programs. Many of our clients overlook

the importance of strength and flexibility training and have minimal

experience with free weights, but perceive stability ball exercises as fun,

challenging, and less frightening and intimidating to them than overhead

squats, snatches, cleans, or the like. They have no experience with moves

from powerlifting or Olympic style lifting when they first begin with us,

but as they increase their confidence with something seemingly as tricky as

stability ball balance exercises, they then become much more willing to try

advanced lifts with free weights.

In objectively rereading this statement, I can now see how someone might

interpret it to say that we promote ball training as preferable to other

means of training for core and stabilizer strength. I plan to rewrite it so

it doesn't send that message, since we believe every exercise has its uses

and purposes, but no single exercise or method of training is " better " than

others -- simply different. One-legged exercises, overhead squats, front

squats, or functional training specific to a person's individual sport will

also train the core muscles and balance, and are actually my own personal

choice in my climbing training workouts; they simply prove to be more

difficult for novices to master when they first begin to lift and aren't yet

fully aware of what their bodies are capable of doing.

Thanks again for visiting our site; we appreciate getting feedback. Can you

tell us any other things you particularly liked or disliked about the site?

Courtenay Schurman, CSCS

Body Results

www.bodyresults.com

court@...