In This Issue

– Robertson Training Systems Updates
– Nutrition Tip
– Exclusive Interview:  Eric Cressey on Unstable Surface Training
– New Articles and Blog Posts

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Robertson Training Systems Updates

New article up!

I had a new article go up at FigureAthlete.com last week; you can find it by following the link below:

Breaking into the Industry

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Sale on all NSCA CEU approved products!

If you’re an NSCA Certified trainer, it’s getting down to crunch time to get those CEU’s.  Lucky for you, we can help you out!

From today through December 31st, you can purchase ALL of our NSCA CEU approved products for 10% off the discount rate.  Here’s all you have to do:

–  Add the NSCA CEU approved products to your shopping cart

–  Before finalizing your purchase, enter the discount code “NSCA” on the right side of the screen and click on “Apply”

–  Complete your order and get those CEU’s!

If you have any difficulty ordering, please contact us directly at [email protected]

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Diet and Nutrition Tip

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Exclusive Interview: Eric Cressey on Unstable Training

MR:  EC, what got you interested in unstable surface training (UST) to begin with?

EC: A lot of people know that I have a big interest in both performance enhancement and corrective exercise.  It’s that “two horses, one saddle” mindset that led me to shape my academic destiny during graduate school at the University of Connecticut as one that blended the two interests.  Unstable surface training had already become deep-rooted in the rehabilitation community, and as it was becoming more and more accepted in the training of healthy athletes as well, I wanted to get a feel for the benefits and/or drawbacks of its application.  As is important with any study, I didn’t have any bias one way or the other.

MR:  Your entire Masters Thesis covers the topic; how much literature is actually out there in regards to UST?

EC: There’s actually quite a bit out there in the rehabilitation community, as UST is universally accepted as a tremendously useful initiative in the rehabilitation of lateral ankle sprains.  Approximately 85-90% of all ankle sprains are of the lateral variety; medial sprains are less common and much more severe, usually involving an associated fracture.

In many cases, without good rehabilitation, ankle sprain patients develop something known as chronic lateral instability secondary to a proprioceptive deficit of the peroneals.  These muscles, on the lateral aspect of the shin, decelerate inversion and, when they fire fast enough, can help to prevent ankle sprain recurrence.  The research has shown that unstable surface training affords some fantastic benefits in helping to turn on these peroneals and keep ankles safe – in clinical populations.

However, when you get outside the clinical realm, things get much more hazy.  There has been very little research done with longer-term UST interventions in healthy athletes.  And, the ones that have been done have had several key methodological flaws.  One perfect example is that some researchers don’t exclude athletes with previous histories of ankle sprains – which means that they could simple be doing rehabilitation instead of “healthy” training.  Some studies used untrained subjects.  Others had no control groups and included very short intervention durations.  Some didn’t even match exercise volume or include any stable-surface training.  In the real world, you don’t see people doing exclusively UST; they generally add it to their stable-surface work – so this wasn’t really specific to the real world.

Stanton et al. (2004)* found that Swiss ball training improved core stability in young athletes, but did not effect favorable changes in EMG activity of the abdominal and erector spinae muscles, running economy, running posture, or VO2max. The researchers noted “Swiss ball training may positively affect core stability without concomitant improvements in physical performance in young athletes. Specificity of exercise selection should be considered.”  This isn’t to say that it’s useless, but rather that people need to think about what is effective, not just what is challenging or unique.

*  STANTON, R., P.R. REABURN, AND B. HUMPHRIES. The effect of short-term Swiss ball training on core stability and running economy. J Strength Cond Res. 18(3):522-8. 2004.

MR:  Lets get to the meat and potatoes here, since you did write an entire e-manual on the topic.  Does UST have any merit in a program?  I don’t want to give away the ending, but there ARE proper times and applications for UST in your program, correct?

EC: Yes, definitely.  Certainly, there are uses in the rehabilitation realm, as I noted above.  Many people might think that my intention here is to say that it’s “foo-foo” garbage, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.  We put a ton of time into our training intervention and research, so it would be really shortsighted and ignorant to just say “always use it” or “never use it.”  In reality, I firmly believe that there are specific applications for UST in healthy athletes, but they must be used in the context of one’s training age, goals, and injury status.

So, as with almost anything in the fitness industry, the answer is “maybe” or “it depends.”  If it was just “always” or “never,” I wouldn’t have had to write a book!

MR:  We obviously have quite a few trainers, coaches and informed fitness enthusiasts on our lists – why would this product be a good purchase for them?

EC: First off, as a whole, trainers need to get smarter.  Period.  Last weekend, you and I sat through a physical therapy seminar where one of the most noted athletic trainers said (and this is a quote) to the PTs in the room: “There is absolutely no reason for any of you to ever refer out to a fitness trainer.  You took Exercise Physiology 101 and that’s all you need.”

We all know that there is a lot more to it than that, but the truth is that when he’s speaking about the personal training industry as a whole, he’s completely on-point; there is a lot of idiocy out there.  That said, if folks are reading your newsletter, they’re obviously doing a lot of things right, and reading something like this that bridges the gap between clinical and healthy populations is one more way to differentiate themselves as experts.

Additionally, and more importantly, I firmly believe that any trainer who uses UST with his/her clients is doing a great injustice to those clients without this information.  There, I said it.  It’s that important.

MR:  Thanks for your time.  Where can the good folks find out more about your product?

EC:  Thanks for having me.  They can check out the new e-book at http://www.UnstableSurfaceTraining.com.

Stay Strong

MR

www.RobertsonTrainingSystems.com