Recently the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) published an article on the use of unstable surface training.

Here are a few excerpts that may be of interest:

“Instability resistance exercises induce high muscle activation of postural limb and trunk muscles. The increased activation has been attributed to the increased stabilization functions.  Instability resistance training with its high muscle activation and lower external stress on joints could also be beneficial for general musculoskeletal health and certain types of rehabilitation.”

“Unstable conditions can lead to decreased force and power output, decreased range of motion and velocity. Furthermore ground based weight training exercises such as squats and dead lifts can provide equal or greater trunk activation than using instability devices. Another study has also reported that highly trained individuals do not experience greater trunk activation when performing exercises under light or moderately unstable conditions.”

“Since many of the benefits of instability devices can be achieved with high resistance involving ground based free weights, advanced resistance trained individuals may not need to emphasize this type of training in their strength and power training programs.”

 “The benefits of instability resistance training may be more pronounced for those individuals pursuing primarily general health and rehabilitation benefits and not participating in training with free weights involving high loads.”

So what’s the bottom line? 

While stability training might be beneficial for rehab or even general fitness (I might even contest this one), it probably isn’t a valuable tool for most lifters.  For the definitive explanation of this type of training check out Eric Cressey’s book The Truth About Unstable Surface Training HERE.

Do you use unstable surfaces in your own training?  Do you think stability training is useless?  Feel free to post your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below.