Runners! Why You Should Love Your Wobble Board!

Now I’m not exactly a big fan of faddy gadgets. I don’t own a thigh master, I never touched an ab cradle and I HAVE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY DEFINITELY NEVER OWNED a protein shaker.

However there is one gadget I am a big fan of.

The wobble/balance board

This bit of equipment will set you back a paltry £10 ($16 or 12 Euros), a bit more if you feel fancy and want to shell out for a bosu board. In my opinion it was the best tenner I ever spent as it’s saved me more in injury treatment.

No I’m not a wobbleboard saleman. Promise

The Sciency Bit

In school we learn we have five senses. Well that’s a load of rubbish. We’ve got lots. The brain talks to the body through lots of little sensory points. These are responsible for telling the mind where the ankle is and what it is doing.

This is called proprioception, and its basically the organic version of motion capture.

When we get injured this system breaks. And it really doesn’t take much, it can be as easy as a turned ankle. The points become ‘off’ and need to be ‘recalibrated’. This makes you more likely to be injured again, more likely to have a screwy gait and generally less biomechanically efficient

Lets face it, we’ve all sprained an ankle in our lifetime.

The system can be reset with wobbleboard exercises. As the body has to make adjustments for the shifting weight the proprioception receptors adjust as well.

Sort Your Gait Out!

It can also correct gait problems so those of you out there in high stability shoes take note. The motion increases ligament strength in the knees and ankles reducing supination/pronation. The gait issue can also be caused by problematic proprioception receptors, and therefore using a wobble board will help by telling your brain ‘where your foot is’.

Other Advantages

There’s a lot you can do with a wobble board. You can use it to strengthen ligaments in all joints of the body ( yes I’ve even used mine on the shoulders) as well as improving core stability. I’ve put some specific exercises below, however you can adapt squats, push ups, calf raises, in fact many of the standard body weight exercises.