Stability training is one of those terms I regularly use when talking about injury management or injury prevention. When most of us think of the term stability, we think of exercises like planks to challenge the core or balance exercises to challenge our balance. While both of these examples are to some extent stability training it is so much more than that. True stability is all about being able to react with perfect reflexes to be able to maintain joint alignment ready for efficient and smooth movement. Also stability training is not just limited to the core, for all joints require stability, with some requiring more than others! In this article, I will discuss what stability really means, and how you can use it to enhance your training and performance.
Stability Must Precede Strength Training
Stability training is something that is not very well understood and is often neglected by beginners to strength training and those looking to get in shape.
For over 20 years now, I have worked closely with many local health practitioners, and the amount of people I have seen come to me after completing a rehab program that did not include any stability or mobility work, but only strength exercises is amazing!
These people found us after spending several years with little to no success, some even got worse!
“You cannot develop strength if you do not have adequate stability first.”
In most of these cases what these people were lacking was being taught two things.
- How to STABILIZE their body in a standing position.
- How to MOVE efficiently with functional movement patterns.
Poor education as to how our stabilizer muscles work is the big problem.
Stabilizers react quicker than any other muscle group, to prepare the body for movement. The stabilizer muscles are smaller and much weaker than the larger moving muscles, and the only way they can work effectively and influence the integrity of movement is to fire first.
The TVA for example fires before you even move, it actually anticipates your movement and contracts to support and stabilize your spine prior to anything being done. It has been found with back pain patients it fires too late, or not at all, leaving their spine unsupported and requiring the assistance of large prime mover muscles to do the job. This is where exercises to target the TVA are used to reprogram this faulty timing and correct the compensation of using other muscles trying to do the job.
However, many of these exercises are very simple and do not require the reflex or timing that it would often need in real life situations, meaning their effectiveness is minimal. That is not to say they are no good, as they are needed in the early stages to help the person understand what to do without the complexity of needing fast reactions and reflexes.
The point is that they should be only looked at as a stepping stone to the more complex method of how they are designed to be used.
If we progressed to planks and various other strength type exercises we could potentially reinforce the faulty pattern by strengthening the prime movers. This is where I see so many “core workouts” ruin people. They see their strength go up from being able to improve their plank time from 1 minute to 2 minutes but all they have done is teach their body how to use prime movers as stabilizers. This is where they are confusing strength with stability.
This is where infant development exercises are more beneficial than planks and most isolated abdominal training. Horse stance is really crawling which is an infant development exercise. Prior to being able to crawl however we first learned to move by wiggling and rolling. We were not yet strong enough to use our limbs but we had reflex movements through our torso that enabled us to twist and rotate to create movement.
Anyone with a small toddler will know how much you have to keep an eye on them when they are on the floor as they try to explore and find a way to move around. Babies do not hold planks to develop strength to stand but learn how to stabilize themselves via various crawling and attempts to squat that include many mistakes before they can walk.
The lessons learned here are clues as to how to regain stability if you have lost it due to injury or pain.
Why Reflex Timing Is Everything
One of the best stability exercises is the “bird-dog exercise” or “horse stance”.
Not only do you need great stability through the pelvis, trunk and mobility with the hips but you also need great stability through the shoulder and neck. The best part about this exercise is it requires some reflex stability in order to complete it efficiently.
The one drawback it has is that it is not performed standing up, but it is a great exercise in the beginning to gradually build up to standing.
Always remember it is always in the standing position that many problems will be encountered. You can become great at exercises lying or kneeling on the floor but this is useless to you if you are unstable the minute you stand up. In a four point position we are mechanically much stronger with the hips and shoulder in extremely strong positions to move. However once we stand up these two joints, which need a lot of mobility to perform their function are now at a much more vulnerable position and the need for stability is significantly greater.
I see many rehab programs use so many floor exercises that have no way of progressing to functional movement. They are really isolated strength orientated floor exercises. There is no progression from kneeling to standing, and rarely with the isolated exercises is the timing anywhere near what it needs to be.
Have you ever tried riding a bicycle without your hands on the handlebars? When you first tried it, it feels scary and you just know that you are going to fall if you don’t put your hands back down straight away. Do you remember how you were breathing? Were you nice and calm or were you pretty much holding your breath and instinctively stiffening up?
When we sense instability our instincts are to create stiffness to make us more stable. But what that often does is make us rigid, and unable to react or use reflexes to correct any imbalance. Our breathing plays such a big role in creating the flexibility and stability we need, and in many cases we need to learn to breathe easily and relax, as opposed to making ourselves stiff. Remember the stabilizers do not function like prime movers.
If I go back to the bike example, I can ride easily with no hands, I can even take my jacket of while riding uphill and have something to eat without needing my hands. I have practiced this for a long time and made many mistakes before learning how to correct myself and maintain stability through feel. Now it is an automatic skill, I do not fear doing this, and I do not hold my breath or stiffen up and am very relaxed.
I am not suggesting you go out and start riding bikes without your hands but this was to prove that when I learned how to relax and breathe, my prime mover muscles which were also contracting and making me stiff also relaxed and now my stability muscles were able to do their job. And they did it very well. With practice they got better and over time I don’t even think about it now. It is just a reflex.
An exercise example of this I use a lot for falls prevention with older adults and also for people with walking impairments is the inline lunge shown in the video below.
Where things can get really confusing is when stability is present in one form of movement but missing or dysfunctional in another! I regularly see this with clients who come to see me for knee problems. When we assess how they move, often their deadlift form is exceptional, yet their lunge or single leg stability is terrible.
How can they have great stability in the deadlift, yet be so bad at a lunge? The same muscles are working in all of these movements so if it was only a lack of strength then all of these movements should suck. But they don’t only ones that need more stability.
This is where ALIGNMENT and TIMING comes into play and why looking at all muscles as if they all function just like a bicep is not only a waste of time but potentially a disaster.
Learning To Move Efficiently Is The Best Way To Improve Joint Stability
Something many people fail to see is that learning how to move correctly greatly improves stabilizers of joints. For example, a person who does not know to squat correctly places abnormal amount of stress into their knees or their lower back, not because of pain or a weakness but poor coordination and understanding of how to move correctly. Once they are shown the right form and begin to use this new method the body allows for greater range of motion and more efficient movement that generates more strength and power.
This is an example of where you have not changed the muscular strength but the neuromuscular stabilizers that ensure the joints are stable enough to handle a load or force.
Another thing to understand is that each pattern of movement is individual from the next and requires different stabilizers firing in different sequences with prime movers producing movement. This is why you must assess all movement patterns and try to upgrade your nervous system computer with quality information in the form of movement skills.
See the article – Why functional movement is everything
This is why muscle focused exercises do very little to improve walking for someone with a walking impairment from an accident or injury. Walking is so complex and uses so many things all at once, trying to use one muscle at a time is a waste of time. This also explains why beginners to exercise are so weak. It is not the lack of muscle strength but the lack of coordination, skills and timing. Their problem is not even a lack of flexibility.
Their brain just does not understand how to coordinate movement. It slows everything down so it can understand and make sense of what is going on, but when this happens the timing is disrupted and as we have said many times TIMING is everything.
This is very important to understand for rehabilitating injuries with people who do not exercise. The first thing they do when in pain is to go and see a health practitioner who will assess and diagnose the injury. The treatment will most often use loosening techniques with massage, manipulation and various other modalities to restore the loss of function to the affected area. However if the joint is already weak, the joint will stiffen up to protect itself.
The underlying problem is a weakness and the body was forced to use stiffness to protect the joint from further damage. Failing to address this will only lead to prolonged weakness, more stiffness, and the injured joint becoming worse.
Lack of timing also exists for experienced people when they perform a new exercise they have never seen for the first time. They may have great strength in similar movements but that does not translate to the movement skill they need now.
Before they can develop strength they need the skill, they need the correct timing and positioning in order to execute the movement efficiently.
Examples of this could be a single cable push with an explosive step or a Turkish Get Up which are both very complex exercises requiring tons of stability, precise timing, coordination, and skill. (If you have ever tried to teach someone these exercises you will know exactly what I mean).
You Must Know How To Brace The Core Correctly
The core refers to the central part of the body including the torso and the hips. The core is the powerhouse of the body as it is the foundation of power and strength.
Almost every movement in life requires the transfer of energy from the extremities (upper to lower, lower to upper, right to left, etc) with the energy being transmitted through the core.
Having a strong core is the foundation of all efficient movement.
The best exercises are ones that teach you how to limit excessive or unwanted motion of the torso and spine. Good examples of this are single leg exercises, suitcase carries, pallof press, Turkish get-ups, and side planks.
When a muscle contracts, it creates both force and stiffness. Force creates joint torque to support postures and create movement – but sometimes the force will enhance joint stability and sometimes it will compromise stability. It depends on how much force is applied and the relative forces applied by other muscles acting at the joint. In contrast, muscle stiffness is always stabilizing.
A stiff muscle prevents unwanted movements from all directions. Stiffness at one joint provides the development of explosive power at another which is easily seen in the use of plyometric exercises in sports.
To see more about this I suggest reading our article – Do you know how to brace the core correctly?
Stiffness Is Not Authentic Stability
I regularly see this with knee injuries where range of motion on a squat, and more specifically the single leg squat is very poor. Partial range is great and stability appears normal, but when asked to perform at a deeper range cracks appear and stability is lost. Hip pain and various lower back conditions we see the same thing. The hips have become so stiff in order to protect their lack of stability that ideal movement from the lower back, hamstrings and thoracic spine is lost
In this case more mobility exercises may be more beneficial than stability training.
Most of the time stiffness is a protective mechanism used by the body to prevent a severe injury like a dislocation or fracture of the joint or bone. The body cannot make a weak muscle stronger so all it can do is use stiffness as a secondary option to protect itself. In the short term it can help but in the long term it leads to significant weakness and problems begin created at other joints and muscles due to the compensation.
Other times stiffness is created from a repetitive poor movement which creates shortened range of motion through the joint for the faulty movement is weaker and vulnerable to collapsing.
Sometimes there is no pain present but you can noticeably see a restricted amount of movement. If you were to force the person into the optimal range, pain would be the result as the body would sense it cannot stabilize itself at that position, so a message to stiffen the joint is sent from the brain to protect itself and prevent the deep range being achieved.
I mentioned earlier we often see this with people who do no exercise and have little strength.
Typical health solutions try to loosen their joints with stretching and massage, which is exactly what it needs. However, if this treatment is not IMMEDIATELY followed up with stability and movement skill training it will default back to stiffness!
Why?
For the body has not been shown how to stabilize itself with this new found mobility. If the joint remains weak with this new found range of motion and feels it cannot control the movement and a possible dislocation of the joint is around the corner it will stiffen back up almost immediately. Unfortunately I see many people stuck in this revolving door of treatment week after week, year after year and never are the shown how to move.
Watch the video below to see an example of how I might do this.
A great story I encourage you to read by clicking here of exactly this scenario is of a young girl, Georgie McIntosh, who had spent 6 years trying to find a solution for a severe back injury, and told to go see a pain counsellor to deal with her pain as nothing could be done. At no point had anyone shown her how to move correctly. Within 3 months of us using simple movement strategies and methods she was better than she had been in 6 years!
She was extremely flexible and all her treatments she was getting were trying to make her even more flexible! This is the equivalent to taking the wheel nuts off all your wheels on your car! When her body felt this loosening take place it’s protective mechanism was to stiffen the area most vulnerable and in her case it was her back. It was at a point where she could hardly lift her bag off the floor when I first met her. When she finished training she was able to do 40kg deadlifts, sit comfortably at work and go for regular walks pain free.
Many people lack flexibility and need to spend adequate time improving range of motion with their joints. But once mobility is established you MUST follow up with stability training.
Good articles to read on how to do improve mobility are provided below.
•How to identify mobility restrictions that affect how you move
•Do you need mobility or flexibility?
You Must Understand How To Progress From Simple Exercises To Integrated Movement
Below is a picture that really sums up what I am about to show you.
This gives a good visual of how we progress from lying to kneeling to crawling, then to standing and learning advanced functional skills, before finally taking these skills to new levels with load or speed.
True stability is someone who can move through the whole series of movement above without loss of mobility or form. This is where chance of injury is minimal and athletic performance is at its greatest! This is where we ALL should aim to be.
One important note here when learning these exercises is to expect mistakes. Just like my experience of learning to ride a bike with no hands, it takes mistakes and experience. Your body need to FEEL the challenge and work it out. Remember to breathe easily, relaxed and without stiffness. Often making your base of support narrow is all it will take to test you, so if you feel you are doing it easy challenge yourself. Make sure it is safe but be prepared to challenge your body.
I am going to start with more simple exercises and work our way up to more complex and difficult exercises to give you a feel of gradual progression.
You fill find the You Tube video below provides a detailed overview of each level.
Stability Exercises Level 1 – Core & Trunk Focused
These exercises are a great place to start as you can guarantee good stability as very little can go wrong. You can make mistakes and there will be no price to pay as opposed to standing movements to come that come with much greater risks. The key is to be relaxed and not fight with the movement. Effortless and smooth is the key which is easier said than done. The horse stance exercise works as both a hip and pelvis exercise and also as a neck and shoulder exercise.
The video below shows you some interesting infant development exercises before progressing to more integrated core stability training. I discuss in great detail the breathing you need to learn for executing the more difficult exercises to come in the following levels.
In this stage I could also include exercises for the wrist, fingers, and elbow.
If you have trouble doing exercises in a four point position it is important to address these problems with simple exercises. Some of these are more isolated strength but some require clever exercise tools to restore lost mobility and stability.
Watch the video below for ideas about wrist and fingers. I also suggest to read the article – Best exercises to improve grip strength, finger stability and wrist strength
As for the elbow this is related to shoulder problems which I will address later in the article.
Stability Exercises Level 2 – Kneeling
These exercises are still floor based but we can begin to play around with some instability by manipulating the base. These exercises can be deceptively difficult and a great way to regress standing movements that may cause pain or excessive dysfunction.
Kneeling exercises are very under-rated and more useful than many people realize. The video below shows you several exercises in order of easiest to hardest to improve your overall core stability and strength. The inline lunge exercise which is featured in the picture below is an extremely effective exercise to use in this level as it is the first time people really experience the “reflex stability” we have discussed so many times in this article.
You will find a detailed look at each of the exercises in this video below.
Stability Exercises Level 3 – Foot Stability
Before we start to exercise standing up you need to ensure you have adequate foot stability. It is amazing how many people unknowingly have very weak feet that are creating all types of problems at other joints. The feet are often pain free but they are the catalyst for other injuries and weakness with other muscles such as the glutes.
It is very important to address any potential problems at the feet especially if you have knee pain, hip pain or low back pain.
You will find great articles to read with additional information in the links below
• How to strengthen weak feet
• Why big toe mobility is so important to the body
Stability Exercises – Single Leg Stance
Now we have moved from floor based movements to kneeling with instability it is time to introduce standing movement.
Great exercises to use here are single leg stance with eyes shut, and the hip airplane. Great care must be taken with these exercises for although they are quite easy to do for anyone with no pain or injury, they are extremely difficult for a person in pain or significant weakness. If you have any problems here you should regress to level two for a bit longer.
Stability Exercises Level 5 – Shoulder, Neck & Elbow
I included some specific shoulder and neck stability exercises here for this part of the body is very complicated to correct.
Most of the problems will originate with the shoulder and more specifically the scapula. One of my favorite scapula stability exercises is shown below and great to use in the early stages.
The shoulder is the most dynamic joint in the body which is great for doing athletic movements like throwing a ball or serving in tennis but this incredible mobility creates instability. The area from where the clavicle and the spine of the scapula and the acromion meet, between this area, the AC joint, and the humeral head of the shoulder, we have a very small space called the subacromial space. If you develop an inflamed tendon from poor movement or neglect to look after your shoulder stability it doesn’t take much to decrease the space we have in that area.
When that space gets decreased, you end up with a shoulder impingement!
The scapula is the key here and it is very unique in that it needs lots of mobility but not too much, as the scapula also needs stability too but again not too much! The secret to restoring optimal mobility and stability at the right time to the right muscles is to teach movement mechanics, and very specifically with POSTERIOR TILT and UPWARD ROTATION of the scapula.
This is the purpose of the wall slides exercise shown below and it does an amazing job of restoring these movements.
Obviously there are a lot of other exercises you need to use and you can see more about this in the articles about serratus anterior and lower trapezius.
The elbow exercises often follow on from the shoulder exercises for they are reliant on the shoulder being stable in order to work. Scapula dysfunction is a massive problem for the elbow for when the scapula does not sit or move as it is designed to, the arm bone has little chance of being in the right position to move. If the arm bone rotates inward the forearm will have problems.
These problems have to do with how well the forearm rotates into a hand-down position known as pronation and the hand-up position known as supination. We use these actions all the time in daily life and most people think that these movements are only performed by the forearm itself. Little do they know, that it is often the scapula that is driving the compensatory movements.
Lastly, the neck is another complicated area to work with and like the elbow is very dependent on the shoulder and scapula maintaining good stability and strength. Forward head posture is a big factor with almost all neck and jaw related problems such as TMJD and the exercise selection should reflect this.
Simple exercises I use to assist with cervical spine stability are shown below.
I do suggest to read the article about forward head posture for more detail on this.
Stability Exercises Level 6 – Integrated Movement
Lastly we are now at a point where you begin to sequence movement with lower body and upper body in perfect harmony and timing. Using a lot of single leg and single arm movements is excellent for making this work well as this helps to address any asymmetrical compensations and also addresses weaknesses with specific joints.
As there are a lot of movement patterns to address this article could go for another 10,000 words so I suggest to read the article about functional movement to see more detail relating to specific movements you would like to see.
The very first level of stability exercises we looked at focused on core stability with floor based exercises whereas the video below gives you ideas of how to progress from these floor based exercises to standing integrated movement.
Do You Need More Help?
While I did not provide any specific exercise ideas or program methods for correcting stability problems in the body there are some great online programs you can download below. I must stress that before jumping straight into any type of corrective program make sure you have seen a qualified Health professional for an accurate diagnosis and assessment of your condition.
I cannot stress this enough as self-diagnosing can potentially lead to more problems. We often refer out to Doctors, Chiropractors, and Physiotherapists before implementing our program to know exactly what we are dealing with. Being certain on where to start is crucial to the success of the program.
If you have seen a health professional and are now looking at implementing a series of exercises and stretches this article will provide you with many great ideas on how to do this. As many people struggle to implement this into a gradual progression I created some detailed step by step programs for the most common injuries to the back, knee, and shoulder that you can instantly download below.
Click here to go to the online shop.
Summary
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Stability training is a very underestimated type of training that we all can benefit from whether for rehab, injury prevention or sports performance. We must always remember that Stability precedes strength and to be able to train stabilizers effectively it is all about timing and reflex reactivity. The day of using planks and various other abdominal exercises are over. We must become smarter with exercise choices and have a much more intelligent reason for selecting our programs.
If you do need specific help with your exercise program please feel free to reach out to me for help and we can set you up with your individualized program.
About The Author
Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 20 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.
References
•Functional Anatomy of the Pelvis and the Sacroiliac Joint – By John Gibbons
•The Vital Glutes – By John Gibbons
•Movement – By Gray Cook
•Corrective Exercise Solutions – by Evan Osar
•Back Pain Mechanic – by Dr Stuart McGill
•Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes – By Shirley Sahrman
•Low Back Disorders – by Dr Stuart McGill
•Ultimate Back Fitness & Performance – by Dr Stuart McGill
•Core Stability – by Peak Performance
•Athletic Body in Balance – by Gray Cook
•Anatomy Trains – by Thomas Meyers
•Motor Learning and Performance – By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
•Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance – By Vladimir Janda
•How To Eat, Move & Be Healthy by Paul Chek
•Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course – By Paul Chek
•Advanced Program Design – By Paul Chek
•Twist Conditioning Sports Strength – By Peter Twist
•Twist Conditioning Sports Movement – By Peter Twist
•Functional Training For Sports – By Mike Boyle