Muscular balance is the balance between mobility and stability within and between muscular chains.
Muscular balance is a crucial basis for constant progress, because you can't build a big house on sloping, soft ground.
Muscular balance is also critical to injury prevention , as the more evenly forces can be absorbed, the less likely a tissue is to become overloaded.
Muscular balance is also an important indicator of optimal program design , as this always aims to focus on current deficits that generally have the greatest potential for progress.
In a recent Podcast Episode #192, I discussed with Thomas why the wobble board split squat is the highest level of muscular balance for the lower body.
In the first few days after the release of the episode, the first videos came from listeners who successfully completed the Wobble Board Pistol Squat.
This means very likely that without ever having done the exercise, someone can do it based on the strength and mobility that past training has built up.
Which is an important indicator that the wobble board pistol squat is primarily a demonstration of muscular balance.
And less of an exercise to build muscular balance.
This is an important point for anyone new to the wobble board pistol squat. And want to learn.
As a demonstration of their muscular balance.
The following hierarchy of progression is critical to building wobble board pistol squat skill:
It is crucial to master these exercises and their respective key criteria before proceeding to the next level.
LH Squat, heels up - Key criteria are elbows vertically under barbell the entire time and hamstrings in the lowest position completely covering the calf.
LH Squats - key criteria are that the elbows are vertically under the barbell the entire time and that the hamstrings are in the lowest position completely covering the calf.
Lh split squat - key criteria are that the elbows are vertically under the barbell the entire time and that the front knee hamstrings completely cover the calf in the bottom position.
Pistol Squat - Key criteria are that the hamstrings in the lowest position completely cover the calf and can be performed with an equal number of repetitions with the right and left. Learning a pistol squat is most effective by using a rubber band to deload the body weight. An article with more details on this will follow in the near future.
Lh Wobble Board Split Squat - In this exercise, the front foot is placed on the wobble board. Key criteria are that the elbows are vertically under the barbell the entire time, that the hamstrings of the front knee completely cover the calf in the bottom position and that the edge of the wobble board never touches the ground.
Wobble Board Pistol Squat - Congratulations!
It is important to use a wobble board like this .
A Bosu ball is not suitable for the same purpose , since the contact surface is much larger, which significantly reduces the requirement. On the other hand, it can never be fully stabilized due to the properties of the rubber. A wooden board with a hemisphere made of wood or hard plastic like a wobble board is a much better choice here.
I also recommend filming the execution of the respective exercises to have an insight into what the execution actually looks like.
Good luck in the Wobble Board Split Squat Challenge!