Q. On my last few visits to the fitness center, I’ve seen one or two personal trainers getting their clients to perform various exercises on Swiss balls or wobble boards. Do these items work any better than normal training?
A. The use of Swiss balls and wobble boards has exploded in popularity over the past few years. Exercising on an unstable surface is purported to improve your stability and strengthen the core muscles.
You will find exercises that are made more effective when you do them on a ball. Research has revealed that ab crunches on a stability ball, for example, work your abs harder than the same movement done on the floor.
But there are some exercises that are not suited to doing on a Swiss ball.
We’ve seen some people performing exercises such as the bench press and overhead press on a ball. The concernis the fact that you will need to work with a far lighter weight than usual, since you have to put so much effort into staying balanced.
Keep in mind that your muscles grow larger and more powerful when you force them to do additional work, either by working out with a heavier weight, or by performing more reps using the same weight. This post about building bigger muscles explains more.
The net effect of doing these movements on a Swiss ball is that your muscles miss out on the growth signals they require. Take into account that you only have a limited amount of time and energy to spend in the gym. Don’t throw away 50% of it trying to do the barbell squat on a wobble board.
Q. I hope you can put an end to a disagreement about squatting that I have been having with 2 mates. One friend claims you shouldn’t go past parallel, while another claims it’s important to go to the floor. Which of my friends is correct?
A. Precisely how deep to go during the squatting movement has been debated by strength athletes and coaches for years. One notion is that full-depth squats (when your thighs are beyond parallel to the ground) can be used to place more focus on your hamstrings.
To answer the question of how squatting depth influences muscle activation, researchers from South Carolina, performed a scientific study employing seasoned bodybuilders.
Using electromyography (EMG), the researchers assessed muscle activity in the quadriceps, hamstrings, and butt of the subjects during partial, parallel, and full squats.
The researchers discovered that the deeper the men squatted, the butt muscles did more work during the concentric phase of the lift. Surprisingly, the amount of work done by the other muscles examined didn’t differ with increased squat depth.
These findings suggest that full squats might not be as effective in emphasizing hamstring growth as a number of people think.
Q. The only real free time available for me to work out is for 30 minutes when I go to lunch. Is this long enough?
A. In case you find it difficult to find the time to train, why don’t you try supersets.
Supersets are simply two exercises teamed together and done consecutively with no rest in between.
You can pair an upper body movement with a lower body exercise (for example pull ups accompanied by squats) or 2 opposing muscle groups (such as the dumbbell bench press followed by the seated row).
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