Importance of Stability Training

When I first started working out I neglected balance and stability and now that I incorporate it into my programs as well as my clients and it makes a noticeable difference.

What is the difference between stability and balance?

Stability is your ability to control your body during movement while balance is the ability to control your body without any movement against gravity. Both are important when it comes to your functional ability. In this post I'm going to focus on stability and it’s importance and relevance.

Stability Training

Stability training helps improve neuromuscular control which is critical in coordinating the complex system for dynamic stabilization. It helps strengthen and steady your core muscles so you can move your extremities more easily.

Benefits of stability training

• Increased muscle endurance

• Increased strength of tendon and ligaments

• Better ROM (range of motion) of muscles and joints

• Increased body awareness

• Improved coordination

• Increased joint stability

It’s extremely important to improve your functional ability and fitness, the less stable we are the more prone to injury we are.

Implementing stability training

• Start with isolating specific core muscles and progress to include more complex movements

• Uses stabilizing muscles of torso, spine, pelvis and shoulders - erector spinae, external obliques, gluteus maximus

• All about timing and appropriate activation of muscles

Stability Exercise Examples

• One-legged toe touch

• Bird-Dog

• Marching Bridge

• Step-ups

Functional fitness is all about supporting your ability to do your daily activities. We can get caught up in how we look and how we want to look that we lose sight of our physical abilities. It’s important that we are able to succeed inside the gym/our workouts as well as in our daily lives. Stability training can be an important aspect of that.

References

https://body-works.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Why-is-Balance-Training-so-Important.pdf

http://www.bodyinbalancerehab.com/blog/balancetraining~844.html

https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/a-z/balance-training#:~:text=Balance training involves doing exercises,some very challenging yoga poses.

https://pdhpe.net/the-body-in-motion/how-do-biomechanical-principles-influence-movement/balance-and-stability/

https://www.physioinqsouthpenrith.com.au/blog/balance-and-stability-what-is-the-difference

https://yogafitstudios.com/blog/the-difference-between-balance-and-stability/#:~:text=Balance is your ability to,control your body during movement.

https://ericcressey.com/what-is-stability-training

https://reference.jrank.org/fitness/Stability_Training.html

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11932-005-0064-y

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1941738113481200