Ever wonder if the stability ball is as effective as some of the fitness ‘experts’ would have you believe?
Can you really build an impressive midsection with a big piece of inflatable rubber?
Let’s take a look at this objectively.
First, let me state that I’m assessing this piece of equipment in relation to it’s ability to BUILD the muscles of the abdomen.
Stability Ball & The Abs
So, what does a stability ball do? It forces the ab muscles to contract because they have to in order to hold the body in a stable position. The instability provided by the ball itself is what forces this contraction.
However, the contractions that can be achieved are FAR from maximal.
Let’s take a quick look at the summary from the following study:
The Effectiveness of Resistance Exercises Performed on Unstable Equipment. Willardson, Jeffrey M. MS
The performance of resistance exercises on unstable equipment has increased in popularity, despite the lack of research supporting their effectiveness. Resistance exercise performed on unstable equipment may not be effective in developing the type of balance, proprioception, and core stability required for successful sports performance. Free weight exercises performed while standing on a stable surface have been proven most effective for enhancing sports related skills.
If “free weight exercises performed while standing on a stable surface have been proven most effective for enhancing sports related skills“, then a stable base is most definitely optimal when training for growth.
Weighted resistance movements like decline sit-ups or kneeling cable crunches also force contraction of the abs. However, they produce MAXIMAL contractions and MAXIMAL growth stimulation.
The amount of weight (and therefore overload generated) that can be used to contract against while on a stability ball is extremely low. Try crunching on one of these balls with 40 kgs on your chest and you’ll be in a world of pain, and possibly in an ambulance!
It’s quite a ridiculous position to recommend using INstability to enhance an ab workout! You actually perform BETTER with a stable base.
Don’t believe me?
You might want to take a quick look at this study which concludes that there is a LOSS of force output with instability – as much as 59.6% less than under stable conditions!!
Quoting from the summary:
The diminished force output suggests that the overload stresses required for strength training necessitate the inclusion of resistance training on stable surfaces.
I’m in the fitness industry along with the same guys that will whole-heartedly recommend swiss ball type exercises. Why do they do it? Well, there’s a HUGE difference between using your own critical thinking abilities to look at a subject objectively, and simply regurgitating what you read in a text book.
Unfortunately, the unassuming new client isn’t exercise savvy enough to know the difference and often times gets taken for a ride. (Actually, my text book recommended that you could start someone with regular crunches/sit-ups and later move them to the stability ball as a way of periodizing or progressing their workouts to make it more difficult. Jesus Wept! That would be the opposite of what you should do).
Hopefully this article helped some of you out there make better exercise choices.
It’ll also serve as a reference for you when helping other people improve their workouts. If they are shocked when you tell them that the stability ball sucks, simply point them to this article to take care of the rest. If they still want to use it after reading this…….well….some people just don’t want to be helped I guess.
Train Intelligently!
Mark
I really like your website and I find it very useful, I want to add that I use the swiss bal for clients and myself for warmups and sophisticated complex movements to loosen problems from car accidents or surgery where the body is confused or needs its own body weight to organize itself on its own terms, ie self balancing one’s own weight in full range motions of twists and turns. This is more like dance training or gymnastic or contact improve, pilates, style training. This is of course not high end bodybuilding. Instabilty training is more for recruiting groups of muscle as warm ups or warm downs or for people who find yoga too static. Like comparing yoga to bodybuilding, not right or wrong, but very useful for very specific goals. You are very right that instability ball training or balance boards, do not focus force for heavy weight lifting into the peak contraction. I would just the opposite happens, the instability recruits thousands of tiny muscles of the spine, occiput, and rib cage and coordinates them with the standard core muscle groups in sports training. When i have clients with back pain, if they first warm up slowly with short situps and then increase to full range situps over the whole ball , then normal crunches and bodybuilding exercise can happen without back pain.
Hey mark wats up? i came across your site about a month ago and so far ive been rele impressed. this is off topic but its a question thats been bothering me. Normally all muscle building websites advice that free weights are better than gym machines. Like if you do 30kgs on a chest press machine, theres no way you can do bench presses with a barbell of 30kgs, u need to do less cuz it creates more resistance. So how come you’re not against it? Lyk for Lats u suggest doing LAT pulldowns, wouldnt it be better to do chin ups? Im kinda confused abt this thing. hope u can clear it up
Hi Mark,
First let me say that I love your site and I have been seeing significant improvements in my physique and strength (PR’s are being set weekly). Your logical and objective breakdown of everything fitness-related is incredibly enlightening. With the amount of conflicting information flowing through the internet, magazines, and (worst of all) word-of-mouth, your articles are the only ones I’ve ever read that describe in detail WHY a certain thing works, and WHY other things don’t.
“Well, there’s a HUGE difference between using your own critical thinking abilities to look at a subject objectively, and simply regurgitating what you read in a text book.” -That’s priceless. I’m going to regurgitate that sentence of yours when someone disagrees with me on something 😉
Second, thanks for posting this article about stability ball exercises (again, very enlightening). Here’s my question: when doing ball crunches, why do I feel more of a burn in my abs, and why are they more difficult to perform, than doing crunches on the ground? If ball exercises are not optimal for muscle growth, what are they good for (if anything)?
@j ing. I wouldn’t disagree with any of that. It completely depends on the specificity of goal of the training.
@Rex. I would recommend both of those exercises. When people speak against machines, they mean fixed resistance machines not cable movements like pulldowns. I like machines and yes I used to be a ‘free weights only’ guy. Why? I was parroting what I heard without really thinking about it. With machines I can put 100% of my focus on moving the weight with the intended muscle and not so much on balance and co-ordination. Both free weights and machines are great.
@Josh. Thanks man. That’s the type of feedback I love to hear because that’s what this site is about.
Using a ball would have its uses in other areas, see j ing’s comment above. The burn is lactic acid. It sounds like you are simply performing a set of long duration which isn’t necessarily great for stimulating growth. Secondly, you may not have experienced a truly maximal contraction of the abs yet. Try kneeling cable crunches or hanging leg raises and hold each rep at the PCP for a second. You won’t go back to the ball again. 🙂
I like how the articles in favor of things always have pictures of insanely ripped people, and the articles not in favor of things always have pictures of average joes. I loved your site in the past, but lately it has been very “there’s only one way of doing things”
I agree that stability ball work is not the best way to MAXIMALLY contract abs. However, I do use it with many of my older clients who suffer back issues.
I’m very wary of a large degree of spinal flexion with such folks, as this results in asymmetrical, anterior compression on discs, which may cause a “bulging disk” eventually.
So I lean toward maintaining a relatively “neutral spine” with most people. But if you’re young and healthy, you can of course get away with more aggressive training modalities.
Keep up the good work on your blog.
This is my first comment, but I’m a long time reader.
Mark,
I think the stability ball craze is just part of the gimmicky things they do to sell memberships to lazy people that are not willing to put the real work in.
Josh Bulloc
Kansas City, MO
Hey, I’m a long time subscriber and always enjoy reading your informative and no-BS articles! This really is one of the best websites out there if you want to get results.
Since this specific issue is something I’ve focused on for a long time, I wanted to give my 2 cents. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to access the full article that you’re referring to but is it anything similar to his newer article? https://www.alexandrelevangelista.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/treinamento-do-core-e-estabilidade-aplicabilidade-para-o-esporte.pdf
With “free weight exercises performed while standing on a stable surface have been proven most effective for enhancing sports related skills“, the author seems to refer to sports performance. In this regard, the motoric abilities and specificity of training are the keys – not so much maximum voluntary contraction of any specific muscle. So, it seems that this can not be extrapolated to training the abdominal muscles. I completely agree with the author’s views on the application of swiss ball in weight training though. It has very very limited use! And as you mentioned as well, it very probably does not compete with more demanding exercises in MVC of rectus abdominis.
Here’s one study comparing crunches with either stable or unstable surface: https://www.simplyfit.com/NSCA%20May2007%20EMG%20Study.pdf . But that is only comparing to a regular crunch – not to cable crunches or ab wheel, which very likely recruit the rectus abdominis to much greater levels. The good thing about the swiss ball crunch though is that you will maintain a more neutral spine, which reduces the likelyhood of a disc bulge.
Also, to any trainers out there working with patients suffering from back pain – sit-ups are strictly contraindicated. As Jeff Stevenson pointed out, the goal should be in increasing endurance and motor abilities in the neutral spine position. Only after the back pain is long gone and the client insists on doing regular sit-ups because of sports specific training or something, should it be attempted. However, the rectus abdominis can still be developed even without significant spine flexion. If you want to learn more about this, I recommend looking at McGill SM. Low back exercises: evidence for
improving exercise regimens. Phys Ther. 1998;78:754-765. Also here, you can find EMG comparisons of different exercises.
Hey Mark !
I’ve being following you for the last 2 years.
I have to partially disagree with this post: when i started doing weighted abs my abs popped out BUT they just look like if i was fat when wearing a tshirt (like most bodybuilders unfortunately…) and my girl friends confirm that! When i stopped doing wheighted abs and doing much more stability jackknifes etc… i saw a real improvement in flatening my abs.
Moreover, doing wheighted obliques did create Love handles on me !!! I know that it’s muscles but it still does look like love handles to my gf’s… Do you have any idea how to flatten down obliques – love handles? could you write a post aiming Flat abs and not just “poping” abs ?)
Thanks for your great work, keep it up !
@space – i used to deal with a similar thing and was able to flatten my abs dramatically by returning to the following program: abs no more than twice a week, period, but intense each time – for only about 10 to 15 minutes tops. i only do a mix of boxer crunches (feet up on bench or bed, bring elbow to opposite knee, exhale and pull in when crossing/crunching) and leg lifts (straight, works the transverse, be sure to pull back to floor when doing it and do them in slow motion so form is perfect) – i do zero obliques because they get hit a bit on boxer crunches and other exercises…this has me at about a 31 waist for years…
Thanks for clearing that up for me. i got 1 question. In the consolidation day u suggested doing dips, but since my gym doesnt have a dip station, intially i decided to do close grip bench presses since it works the same muscles. But then i decided to stress more on the chest rather than the triceps and do regular barbell bench presses. The reason was on normal workout days i do dumbell flys supersetted with bench presses on the machine ( this is because my gym doesnt have a pec deck). So since im doing basically a compound exercise for the chests on normal days and no isolation i decided to focus more on the chest on consolidation days with normal bench presses. ( im doing the tricep pushdown on normal days so im benefitted from an isolation exercise and my triceps arent left out). so given the circumstances do u think wat im doing is a good idea?
It seems to me that a common trend is appearing here – no matter the exercise, so long as PCP is brought into the picture – that stability balls are the long road to a good 6-pack and strong ab stack.
Personally, I use a general mix (altered for THT Volume cycle) of 2/3rds hanging (unassisted – no straps) leg raises and 1/3rd seated decline, weighted situps. I agree with the going sentiment (and Mark’s view) that the obliques are hit with a TA 3.0 / Volume cycle workout, and also the same with 2.0. I do hit them about once every 2 weeks with hanging side crunches to mix it up some.
Following this very tightly has me at 32 y.o., 6’3″, ~190lbs with a 32 inch (or slightly less) waist. I don’t know my measurements at the moment as I’m out of town and away from my gear!
Thanks for an informative and reinforcing post, Mark!