Discredit the Crunch!

I was speaking with someone the other day about the merits of using instability techniques to get more out of your training. Using stabiliser muscles more allows for better strength development as well as placing a bigger demand on oxygen supply and burning more fat. Pretty good eh?

Anyway, while I was talking about big movements with reasonably heavy loads, he was telling me of bodybuilders that were sitting on stability balls doing lateral raises that had to half their weights so they could lift them. I had to bite my tongue!

Let's compare the workouts:

Bodybuilder in Commercial Gym:

• Sitting down
• Stability Ball
• Isolation Exercise (Lateral Raise)
• Light Weights (lightweights? ha ha)

Our Keg/Beach Workout:

• Upright (On feet - exercise should be done from this position)
• Unstable Surface (Sand)
• Unstable Weight (Keg)
• Compound Exercise (can't think of many muscles not working!)
• Relatively Heavy Weights (kegs ca. 50kg, partners ca. 90kg)
• Carried Over Distance

Ok, so my "weird" training methods used a half-filled beer keg (you're not going to see one of those in a commercial gym anytime soon) and I used them on sand (double whammy for instability!). But just because an exercise is hard or something makes it harder, doesn't make it more effective.

This is where Personal Training has gone wrong. Exercise has been dumbed-down so much that we need machines to guide movements and work one muscle at a time, rather than develop the body as a whole. Trainers give each other a pat on the back for devising a complex movement that their clients can't perform easily rather than focusing on the basics.

Squats and deadlifts can't be beaten as exercises (except perhaps by olympic lifts which are in essence derivatives of these anyway), but you won't see many fitness professionals doing them in the gym, and even rarer to see them executed properly.

As for Stability Balls and Ab Cradles.....AAARGH!!!! Useless as far as effective training goes. I can see the balls being good fun if you were allowed to kick them around the gym at the people on the cross-trainers but I really can't think of a use for the cradles. If you want to give your mid-section a good workout try this:

Ab Workout

3-5 Rounds of:

15 Dumbbell Swings (should be quite heavy)
15 Sit Ups
15 Back Extensions
15 Leg Raises (hanging or supported)

For time. Post your times to the comments.

p.s. if you want to throw in a couple of rounds of stability ball crunches after feel free!