I have to say exercise is one of those things that has many variations and combinations anyone can put together to make it fun. The ability of variation is what gives people that would otherwise not exercise the motivation. Yet there are exercises that I see quite often that I believe are emphasized way too much.

One of the exercise routines that cause me to shake my head repeatedly are stability exercises. Now, I have to say that I see nothing wrong with stability exercises. These exercises work great for coordination, concentration, fine tuning of smaller muscles, and balance.

The problem I have with stability exercises are the logistics of doing this type of exercise every time you step into the gym. Allow me to break it down; during stability exercises you are moving at a slower rate due to your body trying to consistently correct itself. This slow range of motion trains the muscles to work at that given speed. Training the muscle to move slowly is all fine and good if you like moving at the pace of a turtle. If that’s not the case, then you are going to need to change.

Committing to performing slow moving exercises can potentially cause a slight change in your muscle fibers. To train hard and effective is difficult when only using stability exercises.

With that said, how much stability do we really need? How often are we really unbalanced? Stability training is great if you were competing in the American ninja challenge or if you are in gymnastics. Unless you are physically impaired, the need for everyday bosu ball bicep curls or squats is not necessary.

Throwing in stability exercises here and there is a nice way to add spice to the routine; yet allowing it to run your entire routine is not giving you much except the ability to be the last man standing during an earthquake, and how often do we have earthquakes?

-Phil