Lacrosse Players Do Not Need to Strength Train on Unstable Surfaces

-October 4th, 2017-

Like always I was surfing the internet yesterday and like always I find something that I just don’t agree with.

It was a video of a guy squatting while standing on a Stability Ball and it reminded me of just how stupid some things are.

I’ve had talks before with lacrosse players about this and have had players I train ask if I am able to squat standing on the ball.

Spoiler, I can’t.

And that’s because I can honestly say I’ve never tried and here’s why:

It is nothing more than a party trick. It will not help you get stronger in any way and you only risk injury trying stupid things like this.

“But it’s very difficult and challenging?” Sure. “It’s tough to balance on”. Yes.

But as a lacrosse player do you ever play on a surface that isn’t stable? Does the ground ever wobble? NO!

There is a place for training balance, mainly on a single leg, but there are safer ways to train balance and it should be kept completely separate from Strength training.

Again the #1 goal of any program should be to reduce the likelihood of injury.

So if I have one of my Rock players come train with me and we practice Stability Ball Squats for balance and they fall off and roll an ankle or much worse fall and hit their head did I do my job? Or did I do the exact opposite of it?

Eric Cressey has written extensively on the topic, including an E-Book called “The Truth About Unstable Surface Training” and his main finding was ‘Unstable training doesn’t allow for enough load to create strength’.

So you have to think of what your goal is. Is it to improve balance? Than try standing on a Single Leg on an Airex Pad for 30 seconds. Do some single leg hops. All this can be done in a Warm Up.

But if you are trying to improve strength, then stand on stable ground and lift some weight.

And don’t ever Squat on an Exercise Ball, unless you are trying to impress people at a party.

 

Tags: balance, injury prevention, injury reduction, smart lacrosse training, unstable surface training