American Fitness Professionals & Associates

By: Lauren Eirk, BA, CPT, RTSm, MATm

For the past several years, it seems that balance and “functional” training has been the buzz word for personal trainers and group fitness instructors alike.  Every fitness and rehabilitation center is equipped with stability balls, balance boards, half-balls, foam rollers, disks, core boards and many other “instability” devices.

There could be a valid reason for trainers to utilize this type of equipment with their clients.  The question remains, “how does this fit into the right progression needed for this person to reach his or her goal?” Many times, it seems that trainers are using these things to create variety, “wow” their clients to reduce boredom (many times the trainer is the one that is bored) and increase client retention.

Our society has become dependent and used to high tech shoes, arch supports, prescription orthotics and a planet covered in concrete, with no changes in terrain.  Walk into any Yoga class, and you will see the problems that students often deal with when exercising barefoot.  Our feet simply have not had to deal with reacting to ground forces.  Most people’s feet are neurologically untrained.

As individuals begin to deal with foot mechanics, shifting their weight, and one-leg balancing, many people discover just how weak their feet have become.  Many need months of training to accomplish this without losing their balance over and over.

In barefoot training, the feedback from students consists of comments like “my feet are cramping up” or “I am so flat-footed that I can’t stay balanced very long before my ankles collapse” or “My legs are shaking and tired!”  If people cannot deal with a level floor, why are we progressing students so quickly into instability equipment?

Most people walk around with many muscle imbalances and compensatory patterns.
These imbalances occur as a result of stress, trauma, overuse, under-use, genetic pre-disposition, poor nutrition, fatigue, and improper neurological input.  Skewed or undesirable motor patterns can become ingrained and result in arthritis, tightness, and improper joint mechanics: “Garbage in…Garbage out!”

If we want people to improve, we must figure out a) what is “out of balance” and b) how correct these muscular imbalances and c) how to slowly progress them to a realistic goal.  Balance must first be addressed on a normal, even, flat surface dealing with the person’s own body weight.  Witnessing how hard this is for most people, it makes me question why we as an industry are so quick to add speed, plyometric drills, and added resistance to unstable surfaces.

Many people will argue that balance begins by strengthening the “core”.  Does all movement originate from this area of the body?  This is simply false.  Ask a fighter to throw a punch at his opponent without proper foot mechanics and heel strike.  Although postural awareness and skeletal alignment is a big key to balance, our center of gravity and maintenance of it changes every second.

The key to balance is muscular participation and muscular orchestration.  Muscles must contract fully on demand in the proper sequence.  In standing, many times this originates from the response of the foot.

When do we ever see trainers teach standing on the floor and balancing on one leg standing on the stable floor?  Sitting in a chair that does not move before sitting on an unstable ball.  How do we know that a client is more stable?  Over time, an individual can learn to balance using stability balls or standing on a balance board.  Many times, this is just a result of the compensation patterns getting stronger.

The weak links are still there.  The more unstable the device, the more dysfunctional the client may actually be.  Becoming a true professional is learning how to prescribe exercises based on the needs of the CLIENT, not just giving them a bunch of exercises displayed on a website or at a convention just so that we appear knowledgeable.  We have to look at each person as an individual with individual needs and abilities.

Remember:  “A movement must be learned before it is intensified.” -RTS® I am not going to need any other “toy” if the person is not able to deal with their own internal forces, with no added “stability” challenges.  Greg Roskopf, the founder/ developer of Muscle Activation Techniques™ also says “Never add instability to instability” and “Functional Training (integrated exercise) will only reinforce compensatory patterns if the weak links are not first identified and then eliminated!”  The key to balance training truly is PROPER PROGRESSION!

BIOGRAPHY 2010

Lauren Eirk, from Louisville, KY, is an RTSm, Mastery Level Resistance Training Specialist, member of the RTS teaching faculty, an MAT Muscle Activation Techniques® Master Specialist, member of the MAT teaching faculty, and a certified Yoga Instructor.  She is the creator of the Yoga Education Program, Yoga I.S®, Yoga Integrated Science™. Lauren is the group fitness director for the Louisville Athletic Clubs in Kentucky.

Web site: www.laureneirk.com
www.rts123.com
www.muscleactivation.com
e-mail: lauren@laureneirk.com