Highly Unstable

Next time you're in the gym trying to figure out which toys look like the most fun today, Bosus, wobbles, half rollers and foam pads, ask yourself this question. Outside, at home, at work, what are you usually standing on? Hardwood? Low nap commercial carpet? Concrete? And when you're on them, what are they usually doing? Moving? Shaking? Tilting to and fro?
Then what on God’s green earth does a wobble board or a Bosu really have to do with anything? Really.

When you're bopping down the street running your Saturday errands, what is it that’s moving and shifting unpredictably; the earth upon which you walk or those plastic grocery bags? When you're standing in line at the movies, what is it that's challenging your ability to maintain control and equilibrium; the solid concrete floor or the impatient and increasingly grouchy 4 year old you're holding? Make sense?

So instead of wobble and foam how about a little sand and water?
Sandbags: One of the cheapest and most versatile training tools. Shifting, unstable weight that can be moved in any number of ways. The same can be said for water, although finding a suitably durable vessel you can actually lift & move w/o worry of spillage may be a tad more challenging. But I have to say, the slosh factor and necessary compensatory effects are well worth it. If you have access to an extra physio ball, use and old kitchen funnel and run couple gallons of water in there. As soon as you pick it up you’ll understand what I mean.

Try this: Take a regular old barbell at a semi challenging weight. Front load it & squat it 10 times. Now, bear hug a canvass duffel bag full of sand at the same weight to your chest. 10 squats. What do you notice? What was different? If you don't have access to sandbags, then do this with a stack of heavy books, one of those 5 gallon water cooler jugs, gravel from the driveway in a bag, anything that is going to want to shift or move in your arms.

The key here is that we’re training our bodies to deal with the world more efficiently. So, we have to bring very real challenges into our fitness regimen. Last time I checked, the American infrastructure wasn’t so far gone that walking across the mall parking lot felt anything like standing on half a beach ball. Meanwhile, I do distinctly remember racing down the sidewalk ahead of the oncoming ice storm yesterday with several shopping bags that just didn’t want to cooperate…

Bring fitness out of the gym and into your life. As always, I welcome your comments and feedback!