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.
What Are The Best Exercises To Improve Proprioception?
Proprioception sounds like one of those complicated science terms to most people but really it is quite easy to understand for it is something we use all the time. It refers to a sense of body positioning in space and is similar to being our “sixth sense“. A good example of this being used is when you try to walk around in the dark and you use your hands to feel your way around as you cannot use your eyes to see. This is where the mechanoreceptors in your body, specifically your arms and fingers are enhanced to become the eyes of the body to give feedback as to where you are. Unfortunately, this is also one of those systems that is vulnerable to weakness and dysfunction if it is not regularly used and trained and when this happens it exposes the body to injury and inefficient movement. In this article, I will explain this in more detail and share some of the best exercises to ensure you maintain great proprioception in your body.
How Constantly Gripping Your Glutes and Abs Ruins Your Stability
There are so many things I have learned over the past 20 years as a trainer and many of the best lessons were from mistakes I made. There are so many things I firmly believed in for years only to completely reverse my thinking years later. One of the best lessons was with regards to squeezing the glutes hard with strength exercises and even clenching the glutes constantly (also known gripping), which is something I did myself for many years believing I was doing a good thing. As a result I regularly suffered with all types of injuries all caused from my own training, or constant habits that I was not aware of that had become subconscious pain creators. In this article I take a look at what is a very common problem to many keen gym person and sporting athletes and how over doing something good can lead to causing problems with how you move.
How to Use Reactive Neuromuscular Training to Enhance Joint Stability & Movement
A very common problem during a rehabilitation program for injury is when you get to that point that you do not have pain but you know your body is only one small step away from losing stability and control putting you at risk of going backwards. Trying to force your way through with strength methods is risky, but sticking with easy isolated mobility and floor based stability exercises achieves very little too. It is at this point I regularly use a training technique called REACTIVE NEUROMUSCULAR TRAINING (RNT for short). This is where a small amount of resistance is applied to a faulty movement that “feed the mistake” and therefor forces the body to make a correction. This can be a very frustrating phase to work through but extremely rewarding if you spend the time to work through it. In this article I will explain how I use several versions of this technique to rehabilitate injuries and even improve sporting performance!
What Are The Best Exercises If You Have Hyper-mobile Joints?
When we experience pain or tightness in an area of our body we have been told we must stretch, massage and loosen the affected area to regain the lost mobility of the joint or muscle. This is the typical approach of health therapists, corrective exercise and most rehabilitation programs. And in most cases it is the most logical place to start, and often pain will subside and things go back to normal quite quickly with this approach. However in some cases this can be the worst thing you can do! For the person who has too much flexibility, otherwise known as hyper-mobile, they will not respond well to this approach, for they lack stability and need to be tightened up, not loosened. For 20 years I have worked with over 1000 people with all types of injuries and when I first started I rarely came across this case. However, in the past few years I have seen a huge increase in these cases, and many times people come to see me after having tried several therapists, trainers and various health modalities that did not work, or even made the condition worse. I am not sure as to why this seems more common, and I see this problem mainly in females, but I believe one big factor is the rapid growth of Yoga and Pilates style training that emphasize more flexibility. And while both these are great forms of exercise, they have the potential to ruin the joints of a hyper mobile person if not used wisely, and especially if you do not move well standing up.