What’s worse, many of the mistakes are easy to correct.  If your personal trainer does some of these things, confront him and ask him to justify himself.  A wealth of science based information is available to fitness professionals, but most make little use of it.  Instead, they rely on habit, misconceptions, and empty promises to market their businesses.

Part 1: Unstable Surface Training

A BOSU Ball In Action

Trainers claim that unstable surface training will improve balance and ‘core strength.’  Standing on a balance or BOSU ball while performing exercises forces a trainee to constantly adjust his weight or fall over.  It does require quite a bit of skill to do well.  Unstable surface training invariably teaches trainees to balance on unstable surfaces more effectively, but the question is: does that accomplish anything worthwhile?  Does training on a BOSU ball make a trainee stronger, jump higher, run faster, or burn more fat?

In short: no.  Unstable surface training is a completely ineffective method of training for healthy trainees.  One of the few controlled studies to answer this question, from the Human Performance Lab at UConn, looked at how university-level soccer players responded to unstable surface training. (You can read the abstract here.)

The authors concluded, “These results indicate that UST using inflatable rubber discs attenuates performance improvements in healthy, trained athletes. Such implements have proved valuable in rehabilitation, but caution should be exercised when applying UST to athletic performance and general exercise scenarios.”

The subjects in the study who trained on unstable surfaces didn’t get as strong or fast as the subjects who trained the old fashioned way with a pair of shoes on the floor.

Let’s look at one common case of unstable surface training: standing on a BOSU ball while performing an isolated arm movement.  The trainer has her client stand on the ball, hands her a pair of 5 lb dumbbells, and instructs her to curl for 10 reps or so.

What does this training accomplish?  A trainee spends so much energy and concentration on standing upright that he can’t lift a meaningful amount of weight.  Because he can’t lift much weight, the training stimulus to the biceps is insignificant and the trainee doesn’t get stronger.  If the client performs the same exercise standing on the floor, he can lift a meaningful load and see a real training effect.

I said the short answer is no, unstable surface training is not effective.  The long answer, however, is yes, it can be effective in very specific situations.  Trainees coming off injuries will find unstable surface training very useful because it retrains the musculature around the joint to respond to quick changes in loading.  After an ankle sprain, for example, unstable surface training will help retrain your muscles to tighten up as your ankle starts to roll.

While I haven’t talked at all about the safety of unstable surface training (it’s usually pretty safe), some personal trainers have managed to make it dangerous (see below). But, in the end, my real criticism is simply that it doesn’t work. Show me a strong and fit individual balancing on a BOSU ball, and I’ll show you someone that built their physique with old-fashioned training before trying their hand at squatting on a ball filled with air.

Brilliant!

1. Targeted Fat Loss

This is a great one.  For men and women it’s getting rid of that extra bit of fat around the midsection to reveal their abs. For women it’s the bit of fat on the underside of their upper arm. Everyone wants to get rid of it, and there a million products/routines/pills that promise to do so. But the fact is, it’s impossible to target fat loss on any part of the body. Fat is deposited around the body without any regard to whether the muscles underneath have been worked.  That’s why all those crunches never gave you a six-pack.

2. Aerobic Training is Best For Fat Loss

This one is rooted in actual science, although it’s ultimately just as misguided as myth #1. Aerobic training – low to moderate intensity activity where your heart rate is about 60-75% of your max heart rate (HRM) – burns energy primarily via the oxidative energy pathway (approximately 70%). Put simply, fat molecules are broken down into energy which your muscles use. High intensity exercise on the other hand – sprints, circuit training, or heavy strength training where your heart rate is typically above 75% HRM  - burns energy primarily via the glycolytic energy pathway (about 50%). In this case, glucose (sugar) is the primary energy source with fat taking a smaller role. Unthinking trainers and the fitness industry took this physiological fact and prescribed low to moderate intensity exercise – the “fat burning zone.”
BUT, low intensity training however, burns fewer calories. A lot fewer – so an hour on the treadmill might mean 300 burned calories or roughly 220 fat calories, but an hour of circuit training could burn something more like 600 calories! Even though less comes from fat, half of 600 (that’s 300 for those who’ve had their morning coffee) is more than 200 or so. So ditch long duration, low intensity training for the most part. It’s boring and largely ineffective for losing fat.