Functional Training or Stupid Human Trick?

I just happened to be at the Rec center today, and I noticed a trainer teaching an exercise with an enormously high injury rate; standing on the stability ball. On looking at his students, there were so many obvious muscular imbalances and postural misalignments that teaching them this exercise was the equivalent of a ski instructor taking novices down a double black bump run.

Furthermore, his students were gripping on to the railing at the top of the stairs as if their life depended upon it. Then I heard him say: Come on! Grip the ball as hard as you can with your toes! Just like you grip your toes to stay in balance when skiing!......okay

Today, many people throw around the words "functional training." However, there is a big difference between a functional training exercise and a stupid human trick!

Take a look at a stability ball, and take a look at a mogul. Does the ball look like a mogul? Do moguls move down the hill when you ski over them?

Now look at the bosu. Seems much more like a mogul to me! Just as form follows function, "functional" should follow the form of the exercise.

It would be really, really, really dumb to tear your ACL by standing on a stability ball!

In Winter Fitness, one of the most important aspects of my sport conditioning workout is that it is progressive. Often, people are able to "fake" their stability by bracing or tensing during an exercise. However, this is not core stability.