Balance Training or Balanced Training? Which is More Stable?

Derek M. Hansen, CSCS

strengthcoach@shaw.ca

News flash: “Athletes and average citizens are falling over spontaneously and collapsing at the waist on a daily basis! What do we do? There is a world-wide epidemic of poor balance and stability resulting in sprained ankles, buckling knees and, ultimately, severe head injuries!”

If this were the case, I could understand why a large majority of the fitness and sports training professionals are incorporating copious amounts of so-called balance training, unstable apparatus training and core stability work. But clearly, this purported stability and balance crisis is not occurring. So what really is going on here? My take on it is that the age-old problem of “a small bit of knowledge becoming a dangerous thing” is at play.

Let’s be honest. People are sheep. There are certainly many more followers than leaders in our society. We like to be told what to do in many instances. What is the latest fashion trend? What car should I buy? How should I invest my money? What is the easiest way to lose weight? I am, however, a follower of the age old process of doing things the ‘right way’, not the popular way. So let’s delve further into the discussion of this balancing act.


The Biomechanics of Balance and Stability

I recently taught a biomechanics course for coaches at the International Coaching School in Victoria, BC, Canada. The text for the course, Sport Mechanics for Coaches, was written by Professor Gerry Carr and offers a concise overview of the fundamentals of sport biomechanics. His discussion on balance and stability offers some important points:

“Stability specifically relates to how much resistance athletes “put up” against having their balance disturbed. The more stable an athlete, the more resistance the athlete puts up against stable forces. An athlete can be in a balanced position and be as stable as the Rock of Gibralter. At the other extreme, an athlete can be balanced but be highly unstable. A giant sumo wrestling champion squatting low with both hands on the ground is obviously in a more stable position than a ballerina balancing on the tips of her toes. A child can produce enough force to push the ballerina off balance, but it’s unlikely that the same force will do anything but bring a smile to the sumo wrestler’s face.”

What I take from this description is that athletes require skills that allow them to orient their bodies and extremities in a manner which maximize their stability. The ballerina, on the other hand, is balancing and, at the same time, holding an unstable body position. Dr. Carr also goes on to discuss differences in linear and rotary stability, which relate more to body position and technique than it does balancing. Carr’s text provides us with what we need to do to enhance stability in sports. Athletes increase their stability when they:

- Lower their center of gravity.
- Increase their body mass.
- Extend their base in the direction of the oncoming force.
- Shift their line of gravity toward and oncoming force.

In case you missed it, Dr. Carr’s list did not include training on unstable surfaces. This may be a shock to many personal trainers and strength coaches, but it is the cold, hard truth. If I ever see an athlete teetering and balancing when performing a skill in any sport, with the exception of gymnastics (and I work with elite gymnasts and they don’t do any balancing on unstable surfaces), they are more than likely executing that skill improperly. Increasing balance and stability is all about good biomechanics and skill execution.

Sport and human movement should be fluid and effortless. Watching an individual perform balancing exercises on an unstable apparatus is like watching someone with hypothermia (with a severe case of the shakes) try to thread a needle. It is not fluid, efficient or pleasing to the eye. It is a massive over-stimulation of low-threshold, proprioceptive motor units engaging in a frenetic attempt to keep a person upright and off their butt. The adaptation is highly specific and not transferable to dynamic movements. The impact on Central Nervous System fatigue is significant, but without positive adaptations for sports. So, you’re working hard, your CNS is getting fried and you aren’t getting any faster, stronger or more athletic for your sport. Great tradeoff!

Movement in sports is inherently unbalanced and, to some degree, unstable. Fast, explosive movement requires that your center of mass be placed outside its normal resting place (i.e. inside your stomach). In sprinting, your center of mass is in front of you to assist in the forward driving motion for acceleration and maximum speed. Sprint athletes are unstable in the forward direction. You can be off balance, yet still in control. Throwing athletes such as discus throwers, hammer throwers, cricket bowlers and baseball pitchers all employ techniques that force them off balance to create greater forces and higher velocities. Training that requires athletes to engage in balancing activities works counter to dynamic, explosive human movement.

Research on Balance and Stability

Common sense tells me that training on unstable surfaces does not make sense for healthy athletes. For some reason, unstable surface training made the jump from the rehab setting to the athlete conditioning realm. If that trend continues, look out for the flying ice-bag throw and doing squats with an ultrasound machine strapped to your butt. Common sense aside lets look at what recent research has proven.

In a paper by J.M. Willardson, Core Stability Training: Application to Sports Conditioning Programs, he appropriately comments that, “Despite the popularity of core stability training, relatively little scientific research has been conducted to demonstrate the benefits for healthy athletes.” He quotes findings by authors of studies such as Vera-Garcia and Behm that indicate that the abdominal region of the body experiences greater muscular ‘activity’ during exercises on unstable apparatus such as a Swiss ball as compared to a stable weight bench. My response to such findings would be, “Is this type of muscular activity producing a useful adaptation for sports and, for that matter, normal human activities such as walking, standing, jogging and picking up something off the floor?” I know that when I sneeze or cough my abdominal area experiences significant muscular ‘activity’. A friend of mine even broke a rib during a coughing fit (not recommended). Following from the pro-Swiss ball perspective, should we then encourage athletes to start smoking and inject them with the cold virus? We could probably get financial support from tobacco companies and the producers of Nyquil with this training approach.

Behm and associates also found out that force output was less on unstable apparatus versus stable benches. Wow – we had to perform a scientific study to determine that outcome! Just go check out your local gym where the fitness crowd is performing dumbbell presses on Swiss balls with the 10 and 15 pound dumbbells. That’s okay – you won’t find me on that end of the dumbbell rack anyways. Willardson again appropriately states that while core stability is required for successful execution of sports skills, “very few sports skills require the degree of instability inherent with Swiss ball exercises.” He goes on to quote Stuart McGill who indicates that, “Any exercise that channels motor patterns to ensure a stable spine, through repetition, constitutes a core stability exercise.” So, from my count, this would include standing, walking, running, jumping, weight lifting, throwing, playing sports and so on and so forth.

Behm and associates also looked at wobble boards and ice hockey performance. For some reason, people associate balancing on a fulcrum board with slipping and sliding on ice. Good thing personal trainers aren’t helping design automobiles and snow tires. Behm and associates found out that, “for the most skilled players, skating speed was not significantly related to wobble board balance (R= -0.28). Once again, we needed a scientific study to figure that one out! Apparently, common sense is not so common. Willardson goes on to state something that every good coach and trainer should figure out before they provide a training program for hockey players – “The optimal approach to improve balance for healthy athletes might be through practice of relevant skills and movements on the same surface on which those same skills and movements are performed during competition.” Hallelujah!!!! I think we are on to something here. You won’t get a standing ovation at a personal training conference or even an NSCA conference, but hey, you’ll be doing the industry and your clients a service.

Here’s a good one. Stanton and others, as identified in Willardson’s article, evaluated Swiss ball training for improvements in running economy and VO2 max. They found out that Swiss ball training yielded no significant differences in these running performance indicators. Once again… no kidding! The funny part is that they concluded that the best type of core strengthening for running would be, “exercises performed in a unilateral, single-leg support, standing position, with the arms held in a position similar to running.” By jove, those exercises sound like – you guessed it – running. You mean to tell me that actually doing the running will condition my ‘core’ to the demands of running? Get outta here!

Stanton and friends also concluded that, “Improvements in core stability were skill specific.” This is something I have always told my athletes. Performing repetitions on a Swiss ball, Bosu trainer or balance board will improve your stability on these devices. But, there is little to no transference to high speed, forceful and dynamic movements on solid ground, or even ice for that matter. It is similar to using the juggling of balls as a training activity for improving hand-eye-coordination. It will make you better at juggling balls, but it won’t prepare you for catching a 100 mph fastball.

For those who are willing to listen to reason, the best way to address the core strengthening requirements for running would be to:

- Run (yes, it’s that simple).
- Perform the marching, skipping and high knee running drills we should have all learned as young athletes.
- Low amplitude jumps and plyometrics which load the core vertically, similar to running.

Of course, as supplementary exercises, you can continue to perform your med-ball passes and abdominal crunches. Do you need to be ‘unstable’ while doing these types of exercises? There will always be a small degree of balancing going on while performing these types of exercises, but not to the degree that your well-being is at risk (i.e. falling off a Bosu or Swiss ball). A good solid surface should serve you well.

In the paper by Behm and Anderson, The Role of Instability with Resistance Training, they conclude that, “…both stable and unstable exercises should be included to ensure and emphasis on both higher force (stable) and balance (unstable) stressors to the neuromuscular system.” My problem with this statement is that the term “unstable” needs to be appropriately defined and a magnitude attached. I would take the term ‘unstable’ to mean performing a standing, single-arm shoulder press (on solid ground) over a seated barbell bilateral shoulder press. However, others might conclude that “unstable” means performing a single-arm dumbbell snatch on a Bosu ball while in a canoe surrounded by alligators. You might go as far to deem the person performing this exercise as both physically and mentally unstable.

Cressey, West, Tiberio et al. also found similar results with athletes performing exercises on stable surfaces outperforming those who trained on unstable surfaces (inflatable disc) in activities such as jumping, sprinting and agility. As with other studies, they determined that force application was not nearly as high on unstable surfaces as compared with stable surfaces. Translation: When your body senses you could possibly fall over, it doesn’t allow you to put heavy weights over your head. Thank goodness your body has more sense than most trainers. It’s really all about self preservation.

So the research is in and it shows that balancing on different unstable devices yields no significant improvement in athletic ability. I’ve gone through at least a dozen studies and the results are pretty much the same. I hope more researchers don’t continue to waste their time studying this fact of training. But I suspect that proponents of balance training will continue to push their agenda and try to manufacture studies that prove their assertions. It’s as though Donald Rumsfeld is pushing the unstable surface training agenda: “They do have weapons of mass destruction, even though we cannot find any proof whatsoever, except these 20 year old barrels that might have once been used for chemical weapons or fertilizer or something like that. But let’s invade anyways!” Sounds logical to me?!?!

Practical Considerations

If stability exercises on unstable surfaces only provide specific adaptations that do not transfer to sporting movements, why are we still seeing these concepts pushed by sports and fitness training gurus. One answer is that if “all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” Many trainers are only equipped to address stability issues in their array of training options. It is amazing to find out that many trainers do not know how to perform or properly instruct many basic weightlifting movements including squatting, pressing and pulling. They know very little about proper biomechanics for running, jumping, throwing and lifting. Additionally, they do not properly understand how to train different energy systems. So, what options are left for these types of trainers? “Get on that fancy ball and start balancing for me! When you get better at balancing on that thing, I’m going to start throwing balls at you! Then, I’m going to strap these elastic bands onto you.” And the madness continues.

Anyone that has done any conventional stability work knows that one of the side effects is that it really tightens you up. The core abdominal work on unstable surfaces tightens up the abs, hip flexors and lower back muscles. Balancing vertical on Swiss balls, balance boards or Bosu trainers tighten up the groin and the IT bands to a point where chronic groin pulls, abdominal strains and knee pain are not uncommon. The National Hockey League is a prime example of this phenomenon. Groin pulls and abdominal strains are commonplace even though many teams do nothing but “strengthen the core.” You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to connect the dots and identify the causes of these strains. If you are an athlete that must perform required workouts with all of these crazy stability exercises, make sure that you are supplementing this work with lots of light, static stretching of the hip flexors, glutes, hamstrings, groin and piriformis to bring down the muscle tone in these areas.

Where is this Going? Future Directions

One would hope that this obsession with balancing and stabilizing will be a passing fad, like the hula-hoop, the yo-yo and disco dancing. Unfortunately, as my wife reminded me, all of these fads make comebacks at some point. Even the Rubik’s Cube is making a comeback this Christmas season. So, even if our generation comes to its senses in time to prevent more sprained ankles, abdominal tears and head injuries, inevitably our great, grand-children will be bombarded with new stability exercises to help deal with zero gravity on the International Space Station version of the Olympic Games.

So what can we do to improve the situation? The answer is - you guessed it - education. The general public has been duped into thinking that balance is important. Let me rephrase that… They have been duped into thinking “balancing” is important. Of course balance and stability is important. However, the methods currently being used to enhance balance and stability are way off base. Every sporting coach and strength coach must go back to the fundamental biomechanical requirements for different movements and sports. Specificity of training is important. This includes specificity of movement, specificity of load, specificity of velocity, specificity of contraction type, specificity of joint angle, etcetera, etcetera. However, trying to simulate sporting movements by creating artificial environments and over-thinking the equation in an effort to sell products is irresponsible. Hopefully the masses will be enlightened sooner than later.

dh

Going Hollywood

Last week I started working on a project that is slightly different than my typical gig (my typical gig being working with high performance athletes). A good friend and mentor of mine - Joseph Horrigan - referred a client to me out of Los Angeles. Vancouver is commonly referred to as "Hollywood North" due to the high number of film and TV productions being shot in our fair city. Joe had started with the client in LA and eventually passed him on to me to ensure that he follows the training program and gets fit for a movie being shot in Vancouver. This client shall remain nameless for professional purposes, but he is one of the top actors in the business right now (in case you were wondering).


So, how is working with a Hollywood star versus a sprinter or football player different, you may ask? Obviously the goal setting stage may be different. One client (the actor) may be more concerned with aesthetics and general health, while the athlete client is framing his or her goals in terms of sports performance (strength, power, speed or a combination of these variables). The training itself can vary as well. While the actor client works at a steady moderate pace, in most cases, the athlete client will push the intensity to a point which would kill a normal human being. This is not to say that the actor clients do not work hard - in fact, my current client works hard from start to finish. However, his lack of conditioning coming into this project does limit his ability to lift heavy, run hard and recover quickly. What may be very easy for a well-conditioned athlete may be quite difficult for him.

One of the perks of working with actors is that they tend to be charismatic individuals who have a lot of interesting things to say - great stories, good sense of humour, etc. A lot of my athletes are great people and can be a lot of fun, but they simply aren't quite as polished as the movie stars. I consider myself to be quite articulate, insightful and cerebral at times (when I'm not watching Ultimate Fighting on TV) and enjoy high quality conversation. And the great thing about my current client is that he doesn't mind delving into all sorts of topics, providing his honest point of view. So, even if the workouts aren't of the world-class variety, the time passes easily because of the quality of discussion.

While I have no personal experience with acting - I never took drama class in high school - I always wondered how hard it would be. I mean, how much work does it take to be a good actor? I certainly know what's involved in training for a world class 100m or a professional sports team. The more time I spend with my actor client, the more I am coming to realize that attain a high level of performance in any field takes a lot of hard work. Acting is no different. Actors - like athletes - reach the pinnacle of their career by having natural ability and talent, and combining those qualities with a good work ethic. This means thousands of hours honing their skills, hundreds of hours going over their script, many more hours rehearsing their parts and putting themselves in the right frame of mind. Sometimes their work involves changing themselves physically - putting on weight (fat or muscle) or trimming down. Robert DeNiro's work in 'Raging Bull' is a perfect example of the lengths actors will go to add physical credibility to their role, whether it's depicting a well-trained boxer at the peak of his career, or an overweight ex-champion.

For me, working with my current client has been a mind-expanding experience. It is obvious that acting, like any other profession, has it's hard workers and floaters. I'm fortunate enough to be working with one of the hardest workers in the business. It clearly has transferred over into other aspects of his life and has made my job as his trainer a much easier and more enjoyable experience.

dh

Close and Getting Closer: Canadian Championships 100m

Well, we accomplished what we set out to do. By we, I mean myself and my sprint athlete Nathan Taylor. We wanted to make the 100m final at Canadian Championships and put down a good time to help with funding for next year. Nathan qualified for the final and finished 8th overall in the final. In the semi-finals of the 100, Nathan finished in a time of 10.36 seconds, beating his personal best by 0.02 seconds. He had run 10.32 in the heats, but the time was assisted by a 3.1 m/s wind (2.0 m/s or less is allowable).

It has been a long time coming for Nathan. Back in 2001 at the Canada Games, Nathan ran 10.38 seconds to win the 100m and set a new Canada Games record. Obviously, he thought it was the start of things to come. Perhaps by 2004, he would be ready for the Olympic Games. Unfortunately for him, his career did not blossom as envisioned. His collegiate career was plagued with mediocre times and lacklustre performances. He was lucky to run faster than 10.70 seconds. Nathan did manage to secure some high performance grades and move on to a masters degree at Simon Fraser University.

I first started working with Nathan back in September 2005. I think we both knew that he was capable of much better than 10.7's and 10'8's. It was just a matter of getting some quality speed work under his belt. Watching him run some simple accelerations and move the weights in the weight room, you could see that he had a good amount of fast twitch fibre. It was now up to me to make sure that his fast twitch muscle were trained appropriately. Short acceleration work, with a solid weight program and some technical adjustments would be the solution to his four year drought.

Needless to say, the indoor season started off well in January 2006 with a personal best time in the 60m of 6.74 seconds. This result was attained through acceleration work to 40m in a hallway on a roll-out track surface. Not bad. Once we moved outdoors, training continued to be a challenge with poor weather conditions and headwinds playing havoc with our plans. We seemed to be stuck in the 10.6 zone, whether because of rain, wind, cold weather or a bad combination of all of the above. The one time when we had perfect conditions (Tuscon, AZ), the timing system broke down. But, we continued to plug away, with the faith that we were on the right track -- but just in the wrong competitions.

On Friday, August 4th, 2006, everything came together with Nathan's 10.32 and 10.36 runs. Unfortunately, those runs had a profound impact on Nathan's nervous system, and he was flat for the final, running a 10.58 second 100m with no wind. Regardless, we are happy with his efforts and know that he is capable of running faster. Next season, we simply have to make a better effort to seek out optimal conditions for both training and competitions. It will require considerably more funding, an area that we must work on in the off-season. However, we certainly have much to look forward to.

dh

Simply Happy to be a Part of It - Adam Braidwood's Rise in the CFL

I read a great story today from the Edmonton Sun. One of the athletes that I had the pleasure of working with is making the most of his opportunity in the Canadian Football League. Adam Braidwood - a product of the determined efforts and keen eye of Robert Holland, football conditioning guru - is making headlines in Edmonton with his talent, desire and great work ethic. It's nice to have the opportunity to work with athletes with these qualities, as it almost always results in rewards for everyone involved.

You can see the Edmonton Sun article here.

Key quotes from Derek Van Diest's article are those made by head coach, Danny Maciocia. They point to the character of Adam, who gained a starting spot when one of his defensive linemates was thrown out of a game for unsportsmanlike conduct.

"I'm happy with Adam," said Eskimos head coach Danny Maciocia. "He's playing his heart out. And even when he's making mistakes, he's making them at 100 miles per hour."

"Everything he does is correctable," agreed Maciocia. "He's the type of guy that won't make the same mistake twice."

Adam is one of those athletes that take every bit of feedback you give them and translates it into improvements. He is a no nonsense guy who is not looking for short-cuts. He wants to get down and do the dirty work, because he knows that it will only benefit him in the long run. Coach Holland was gracious enough to get me involved with Adam and assist them with speed work in preparation for Adam's combine testing. The experience was definitely a pleasure and gave me the opportunity to be involved in the further development of a talented athlete and great person.

Clearly Adam knows what it takes to move ahead in his sport. Although Adam was passed over in the NFL draft, his latest advances show us that he very well could have made waves in the "League". When he made the move to Edmonton and was going through training camp, he was suprised to find that many of the players he was competing against had already spent time in the NFL. I look forward to watching Adam's evolution in the CFL and see where it takes him. Perhaps the NFL is still in the cards. I suspect that if he does get a shot in the league to the sout, he will make the most of it and suprise more people.

dh

Find more on from the Edmonton Sun on Adam here.

Striving to be Part of the Fastest in the World Club - An Ethical Dilemma for Some?

Being that my job, my livelihood, depends on my ability to develop athletes to their full potential, the recent events involving the use of performance enhancing substances are certainly disturbing. Of course, I'm talking about the Landis and Gatlin revelations - testosterone positives - that have come to light in the past week. I am not naive to the realities of sport at the highest level, but sometimes you wonder if all of the effort you are putting into training your athletes is all for naught. Are we simply doing it for the love of the "pursuit of excellence" or do we hope to some day have athletes standing on the top of the podium?

I'm as skeptical as the next guy (if not more) when it comes to evaluating the world's best performances in any sport. Do I think use of illegal substances such as growth hormone, testosterone, steroids, EPO, stimulants and other drugs is more commonplace than people would like to admit? Certainly. Does this mean I condone the use of these substances? Absolutely not. But I have been around long enough in the sports world to understand what is "natural" and what is "enhanced" and how it affects my field.

It is not common for incredible performances to be explained away by, "Well, he's just a freak of nature," or, "She just trains harder than everyone else." Improvements in performance in mature athletes come very slowly. Of course, I am speaking about athletes who have been training properly for a significant period of time. When you haven't trained, improvements should be easy and can be significant. Not unlike the changes you would experience when you were 13 years old and from year-to-year you would be able to jump higher, run faster and, of course, grow taller. But it's unlikely for athletes, such as veteran Major League Baseball players, to begin to peak in their home run hitting in their mid-thirties. C'mon, I'm in my mid- to late- thirties and I'm not getting better at anything, except being more patient with those around me.
So, let's say drugs are the "express-train-to-success" that must be in the arsenal of high performance coaches and athletes. It's becoming more clear to the general viewing audience that this is the case. And, it's likely leaving an indelible impression on your young, up-and-coming athletes. What are the options?

1. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

While this is not an acceptable choice for most people, including yours truly, it may be a credible option to athletes who are close to the top, but just can't make the next leap to success. It will also be easier for those who have nothing to lose -- those who come from poor socio-economic backgrounds. We are seeing this now in places such as the Dominican Republic where steroid use is seen as the only way to get out of poverty and into the Major Leagues of Baseball. Just as in every facet of life, there are people who short-cut, cheat and lie their way to success. Why should sport be any different? The sad part is that those athletes who are ethical, hard-working and deserve to be commended for their sporting talents will continue to be the ones placing out of the medals.

2. Working for the instrinsic rewards of sport.

Ahh yes, "Just Do It." There will still be those of us who stick with sport for the right reasons: fair play, health benefits, courage, commitment, leadership and, of course, fun. There is nothing wrong with this. I'm very lucky that I can make a healthy living in sports. I was formerly a consultant in the engineering business, working on projects, managing clients, sitting through meeting after meeting, makeing sure I was keeping my billable hours up there, etc. While there were lots of good things about that job, it just wasn't for me. I didn't have a passion for it. As a strength and conditioning professional and sprint coach, I find I have the freedom and passion that I missed in my other job. While there are times I shake my head at the world of sports, I'm glad I'm a part of it. As an athlete, I know I learned about how to set goals and follow through on them. You also get a good opportunity to develop your coping skills, as we all have our share of disappointments in sport, whether it be dealing with losing, failing or getting hurt. So, just because you don't get a gold medal, doesn't mean you haven't earned something more valuable.

3. Wait and hope the governing bodies of sport and drug testers can clean things up.

We can always hope. But as we've seen over the last few decades, the drug testers always seem to be far behind the drug users. And, we still seem to be having problems with the governing bodies of sport who claim to lose more from toppling champions than they would if they let the drug problem flourish. Professional baseball is the obvious example. And, we are also hearing more and more about gene doping that will go undetected -- at least for years to come. The sad part is that conventional steroids and performance enhancers seem to be readily available through the black market, in many cases via organized crime. So, cleaning up high level sports is not the only challenge. Ensuring that these types of drugs are not offered to our youth and prevalent in our communities should be our primary concern. And more stories about how the elite are benefiting from drug use can only add fuel to the fire.


So, all I can say for now is that I will continue to plug away to make my athletes the best they can be. I do believe in the pursuit of excellence. However, we as individuals may have to re-arrange our parameters of success to reflect our own improvements -- and stop comparing ourselves to those at the top of sports, as they will sometimes find themselves at the bottom very quickly. As Mr. Landis and Mr. Gatlin are quickly finding out.

dh