The Importance of Stability Training
Have you gone to the gym and not sure where to start? Many of us live sedentary lives, so jumping straight into cardio and/or weight training may not be the best option for someone beginning their fitness journey. So where do you start?
Beginning with a solid foundation with functional training and stability training can help develop and strengthen the supporter muscles that provide everyday movements. The core also plays a massive role in creating overall stability in the body; read my post about the importance of core training for more information.
You can implement many strategies to incorporate stability training at any fitness level. As a beginner, you can perform a complete workout focusing solely on stability and endurance with balance and core exercises. This is where I recommend all beginning fitness levels to start. I am writing a fitness program for beginners, focusing solely on building stability and core strength. So stay tuned for that program to be released!
For a more intermediate to advanced fitness level, it can be helpful to begin with a warm-up that targets balance, flexibility, and mobility before doing a strength training or cardio workout, even if you are experienced in the gym. Not only does stability training improve daily movements and overall mobility, but it can also improve and increase the range of motion with your strength training or cardio workouts.
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Stability Training
Stabilization training is a great beginning point, no matter your fitness level. The exercises that focus on stability training are often balance exercises. These can be performed with a large variety of difficulties, so at an intermediate to advanced fitness level, you can still benefit. Not only can you incorporate stability training in a warm-up that specifically works on balance and stability, but you can also modify various more stability-focused exercises.
For example, you can superset (two exercises performed back to back with no rest) a bench press and a push-up. Since you are lying down to perform a bench press, you are in a stable position to allow targeting just the chest muscles. While a push-up also targets the chest muscles, it also requires a lot of core strength and stability. So putting these two exercises in a superset, you target the chest and improve your overall stability with the push-ups. As a beginner, you can simply do push-ups as part of your workout. Many exercises help improve stability while also targeting/isolating various muscle groups. So you can always opt for those exercises that incorporate stability.
Another example of modifying an exercise to increase the stability-focus; The exercise is a balance reach. Beginning on one foot, bring your other leg up so your knee is parallel to the ground and your knee makes a 90-degree angle, and then sweep your leg back and lean forward until your body is parallel to the ground. Return to starting position and repeat.
As shown below. In this exercise, I am still working on my balance and ankle stability that this exercise focuses on. I use a short platform to help with stabilization at the bottom of the movement. I only use it to regain my balance and then let go before I continue. This exercise is DECEIVINGLY hard.
Flexibility and mobility
Another way to incorporate stability, flexibility, and mobility is by adding unilateral workouts into your routine. This means you will focus on one side of the body at a time. Examples include single-leg squats, single-arm biceps curls, deadlifts, and lat pull-downs, to name a few. This helps to focus on one side of the body to reduce the risk of muscle imbalances. When we do bilateral exercises, we often have one side stronger than the other, and if you continue to move through the movements, you may adapt to favoring one side over the other. In the long term, you may increase the risk of injury.
Takeaway
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“Do something today that your future self will thank you for”
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