Movers and Stabilizers

Our bodies contain many different muscles. Some of these muscles are made to move us, while others are made to stabilize. The movers are generally our larger muscles, and are the ones that most of the gym bros are trying to grow. These are, typically speaking, the “show muscles.” The stabilizers, I believe, are the more undervalued of the two types, and are often pushed to the wayside and ignored when training. The stabilizers play a pivotal role in keeping us healthy and moving well, and in preventing us from breaking down. Without strong stabilizers our joints would lack good coordination and control during movement. Then, add faster paced and heavier loads into the picture when you lack stability. Examples here include training in the gym or competing in sports. Weak stabilizers plus high loads and high velocity movements equals not-so-great things happening.  
 

It’s great to have strong movers, but you also need good stabilizers to help control and guide your movements. For example, when the stabilizers are weak and cannot take on the tasks expected of our bodies, those oh-so-common problems that we hear about start to arise. Many common knee problems, low back problems, and shoulder problems can stem from poor stabilizers throughout the body. Having weak hip external rotators can cause your knees to collapse in when jumping, squatting, or running (figure 1). Poor spine stabilizers, aka the “core” (not to be confused with your six-pack abs), can contribute to back pain. Weak rotator cuff musculature and shoulder stabilizers can lead to all sorts of pathologies in the shoulder.

Figure 1: Weak hip external rotators will cause your knees to collapse inward during the squat, very similar to when landing from a jump as well.

So, how do you strengthen these mysterious stabilizers? 

For the hips I like banded walks, stepping sideways, on diagonals, or any step variation you want to do. Put the band just above your knees, do a quarter squat, and take side steps, 45 degree diagonal steps, and forward/backwards steps. Clams are also a great exercise for your hip external rotators (figure 2).

 Figure 2: Laying on your side with your knees bent and feet together, lift your top knee away from the other while keeping your feet together.

For the core, plank variations-front and side planks-are a great place to start (figure 3).

Figure 3: Front and side planks. Hold these for time, in bouts of 15-30 seconds for reps. Focus on breathing and keeping your spine in a neutral position while bracing your core.

For the shoulders, banded external rotations are good to get the ball rolling in the right direction (figure 4). 

Figure 4: Keeping your elbow towards your side, your elbow bent to 90 degrees, and you hand in front of your stomach, move your hand away from your body, rotating your arm away from you while keeping your elbow in place.

There are so many different little exercises for strengthening the stabilizers that I cannot list and draw all of them here. Hopefully some of these things, when incorporated into your daily or “every other day” routines, will help and improve some of those weak stabilizers.

Ryan Goodell, CSCS

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