“I saw someone squatting using a Smith machine, while standing on a BOSU ball the other day.”—Ian M.
The above quote is in response to a comment I shared on social medial about a trainer having a client wear a weighted vest to do modified pushups. These are just some of the dysfunctional—albeit well-intended—attempts at being trendy in the gym. I reiterate my lack of love for the phrase “functional training” because this is what happens—inexperience and ignorance leads exerciser and their trainers to do dumb things.
Take just a moment and ask yourself, if this makes sense. Don’t simply do an exercise because a trainer say to or because the person on YouTube had great abs. Consider why you should (or should not do the exercise. If you are doing an exercise to improve balance, does it make sense to add weight like a strength exercise—or does it make better sense to progress the instability (e.g., decrease the base of support or decrease the stability of the surface)? Does it make any sense at all to stand on an unstable surface (e.g., BOSU ball) and move through a path that is fixed (e.g., Smith machine)? (Hint: the answer is “no”.) A basic understanding of levers might be required to understand why the weighted vest and modified pushups makes no sense. (Schools should be teaching this by the end of middle school.) Adding weight to a pushup before one can perform a correct plank-position pushup diminishes the effectiveness of the exercise. This is online with adding weight to the squat before doing a full range-of-motion squat (or any exercise for that matter. The list of examples can go on. Another favorite is walking with hand weights. Walk faster and engage more muscle mass (i.e., make the legs work harder). You’ll burn more calories and have a greater effect on the cardiorespiratory system.
Just because an exercise looks impressive doesn’t mean it is effective. Remember specificity and overload. Needlessly increasing the risk of performing an exercise? Well, as Forrest Gump said, “Stupid is as stupid does.” If you are inexperienced and a trainer or coach asks you to do something that looks a little “off”, ask “Why?”. If they can’t give a sound answer, it is probably not worth your effort. If the answer sounds more off than the activity, get a new trainer.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!