An Apology to Bosu Ball

I recently wrote an article titled "Puncture All Bosu Balls," and as my usual caustic self often does, I gave it a snarky subtitle:

"The next time you see someone using one of these implements, do them a favor and shove them off."

The article was posted on T Nation a few weeks ago and it quite understandably pissed off the Bosu Ball people to a considerable degree. They ended up asking me (fairly nicely, considering the circumstances) that I write an apology.

This is that apology.

Within the article, I repeatedly referenced Eric Cressey's Master's thesis on unstable surface training (UST), the findings of which were written up in an article by Eric over 5 years ago titled, "BOSU: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

The problem is this: Cressey's original study was done using the ironically name stability discs – small, wobbly cushions. The results were fairly damning.

And here's where I screwed up: While he didn't specifically write that his results extended to Bosu Ball, I unfairly extrapolated from his findings and suggested that Bosu Balls are equally deficient.

While I mentioned unstable-surface training ("UST")several times in the article, I didn't make it sufficiently clear that Cressey's findings applied specifically to UST and not Bosu Balls, so it's easy to see how the overriding perception would be a negative one toward the Bosu Ball.

As far as Cressey's original T Nation article from 2014, I gave it a misleading title (against Eric's wishes). In my defense, I assumed that a more accurately named article titled "Stability Discs: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" would be met with a collective ho-hum, because no one knew what the hell stability discs were back then. So I replaced "stability discs" with "Bosu Ball."

Again, I apologize because it misled people into thinking his Master's thesis, ergo his article, was about the Bosu Ball.

But maybe I need to explore my feelings toward the Bosu Ball a little more. I in fact occasionally use them for a variety of exercises, but I've often taken umbrage with them -- not so much for the product itself, but for the way many people use (abuse) them.

While the warning on the Bosu Ball says not to flip the thing over and stand on it (because it could possibly pop), many, many people do it anyway, using it to do dumbbell curls, dumbbell over head presses, and even barbell squats.

As such, I've damned the product largely on the way some misguided people use it, and that isn't fair by a long shot.

I hope they accept my sincere apology.

— TC Luoma