NO MORE BOSU BALLS

This morning, I saw an "expert" in the golf fitness world using a bosu ball lunge exercise with one of his PGA Tour athletes.

Major sigh...

I'm out here trying to break stereotypes in the golf fitness world and then I got dudes like this posting hot trash.

If you want to maximize golf performance, hit bombs, and increase resilience, ditch the bosu ball.

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Why the Hate on Bosu Balls?

The tool itself is fine, I've used it before as a SpikeBall net.

That's about where the list stops.

When you start including instability tools like bosu balls, those disc things, or the blue squishy pads you remove a ton of your force production potential.

As instability goes up, force production and rate of force production goes significantly down (1,2,3).

But, you can "engage your core more."

Probably not. While some research does show that core activation is slightly higher when lifting on an unstable surface, this is only when the absolute load applied is equal... which is NEVER the case in practice (4).

For example, if you grab a 35 lb dumbbell to do a goblet squat on a bosu ball, you'll probably grab a 60+ on a stable surface.

So, which is better.... High loads on a stable surface or low loads on an unstable surface?

No doubt about it, the former.

"...unstable surface training 'attenuates' athletic performance" (5).