Last year Michael Boyle released his infamous “The Death of Squats;“ it caused a bit of controversy to say the least.  A couple weeks after that my friend Jonathan asked me, “Have you heard the new death of?”  I replied, “No.”  “The death of push-ups.” he said.  “What!?” I exclaimed.  “Yeah, Boyle’s going after push-ups now,” he replied seriously.  He caught me a couple of times with jokes like this, then it just became a daily thing — every day would be the death of a different exercise or a piece of equipment.  Hence, today I bring you the death of the Bosu balls.

Why do I hate the Bosu ball?  You know that “little half-ball” that all the regulars in your chain gym are always looking for?  “Excuse me, do you know where the Boosoo ball is?” Huh?  “You know the blue ball, with the flat side…it’s for your “core”…”  At this point in time I usually bite my tongue, point in the direction of one of the stupidest things in most commercial gyms, and then my client and I begin laughing and making fun of whoever just asked for it.  Thankfully I’m no longer in this setting, but I was for years and tolerated a lot of ridiculousness like that and this:

That’s right; after finding the Bosu ball stupid exercises always ensue.  The most popular exercises to do on this waste of time are usually performed with pink dumbbells. I know someone out there is shouting “Not me!  I go heavy!  I do push-ups on three of them!”  This is the other problem with this device: it attracts “look at me” types and their circus-trick exercises.  So, there you have it; you can yield pink dumbbells and wobble around and wonder why you never get stronger, lose weight, or obtain the “core” that you’re working so hard to achieve.  Or you can look like a jackass, or possibly some other dude will think you’re awesome (that’s right I don’t think chicks care about your Bosu skills) and  then proceed to waste his time doing the same absurd exercises. There really is no good way you can go with this thing.  Even worse, if you’re an athlete and spend your time training on one of these things, you could end up decreasing your performance as Cressey et al. found in their study, “The effects of 10 weeks of  lower-body unstable surface training on markers of athletic performance.”

But what about for rehab,  you may ask? There is some research to say that it’s effective in this setting, but I never see anyone come into a gym take off a shoe, and stand on a Bosu ball to rehab an ankle injury.  And why the Bosu? I hope PTs quit wasting their money on these things, as there are other less ridiculous-looking and cheaper devices for this type of training.  I also feel that this is something we need to kill the use of, even if there are two good things you could do with it. Is it really worth the purchase?  There is an infinite number of stupid things you can do with it and as an industry (both performance and rehab), we need to get this thing out of the picture — the people have been lied to for too long.  Death to the Bosu ball.

Happy Monday.  In case your dragging today, I’ve included a motivational image; look at those guys getting after it with bars loaded with barbwire.  If you’re still thinking your gym sucks because they don’t have a glute ham raise get over it, or maybe you just need to watch this video.  No excuses.

In my last post outlining my goals for 2011 I forgot one thing: to increase my use of social media.  I don’t know why I said increase, I don’t really use it at all, but that’s about to change.  I’ve gotten myself a Twitter account now and need to update the Facebook account which I haven’t really touched in a couple of years.  I’ve been one of those stubborn types who criticizes social media and wishes for the days of no cell phones and books that had actual, tangible pages.  Well, I don’t think I can hold out any longer, after listening to a recent podcast and hearing Michael Boyle say this about social media:

“What you realize is that the influence is being wielded by the people who are using the internet, whether you like it or you don’t like it…You’ve got to be on Facebook, you’ve got to have a blog, you’ve got to be on Twitter.  If you’re not doing this stuff then you’re falling behind…if you don’t embrace the current marketing with in that business, then you’re probably doomed to fail.”

Doomed to fail!  We don’t want that, so social media here we come, from now on every time I bench press, go to the bathroom, or write a new blog post, all of my “friends” will know!  Not quite, but Boyle is right it’s time to step up my internet presence, I’m falling behind.

This might seem ironic, as I’ve had a blog for some time, but I’ve never gone out of my way to tell others to read it.  And I always thought having a bunch of “friends” I don’t know on Facebook was kind of weird, but if the guys who don’t train people are getting all the praise simply because of their web presence, well we can’t have that then.

In other random news, I’ve finished Dan John’s new book Mass Made Simple.  I will write a review once I do the program.  It will probably be a little bit until my body can handle the squatting load in the program.  Bodyweight for 50 reps!

Also, Eric Cressey put out a nice blog post last week entitled 5 Reasons Direct Rotator Cuff Work is Necessary in a Strength Training Program.  Check it out, and remember to program your traditional cuff work like cable external rotations after all of your upper body lifts, to further prevent impingement.

Guest Post by Michael Boyle

The other day I was thinking about some of my former interns who I never see at conferences. Sadly, there are far too many. I often ask them if they are going to attend a particular conference that I am excited about and the response is almost always the same. “I have workouts scheduled that day so I’m not going to be able to go”. These men and women are the ones that come to mind when I say “no time to get better”. Most of these coaches are doing the same workouts they were doing ten years ago and consistently use the excuse that they are too busy to attend conferences. In fact, they are actually too busy to get better. They are so busy trying to be dedicated to their athletes that they are in fact failing them. I believe many of these coaches have the best of intentions. They view an educational day off as a step back for their athletes rather than a step forward.

I hate to tell anyone but, we are not nearly as indispensable as we think. If our athletes work out for one day without us, the world will not end. If the head coach sees you are not there for one workout he probably won’t fire you. Tell him or her that you need to take the time to get better. Think of it as practice.

Ask yourself how many conferences you go to per year? If it is one or less, you are too busy to get better. Ask yourself how many books you read a year in the field. If the answer is less than ten, perhaps you are too busy to get better. How many DVD’s have you purchased and watched this year? No time to get better?

Time spent coaching is one thing. I think that is what most of us like to do best. However if you are always too busy coaching to practice the fine art of self-improvement eventually your coaching will suffer.

Business experts and business coaches often talk about the difference between working in your business and working on your business. If you are always working in your business, you are no more than another employee. You need to spend time working on your business for your business to thrive. In coaching it is the same principle. If you are always coaching but never trying to learn, you eventually fall behind. It’s like playing game after game with no practice.

Don’t be too busy to get better. Set goals for yourself. Set a goal for the number of seminars you want to attend this year. Set a goal for the number of books you will read and DVD’s you will buy. Maybe even set a goal for the number of other coaches you intend to visit this year. I attend a lot of seminars as a speaker and ask anyone, I also sit and listen to the lectures. In addition I set a goal of attending at least one seminar a year as a participant, not as a speaker. Ask yourself honestly “have I been too busy to get better?”.