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If you have been involved in bodybuilding for a while, you've probably heard fellow lifters discussing stabilizer muscles. There are many things out there that might sound complicated, but you're lucky, this isn't one of them.
Much like how a foundation stabilizes a house, your stabilizer muscles help to keep you balanced and upright when moving. Your stabilizer muscles are not directly involved in the lifting of the weight, but help keep your body steady, through isometric muscle contractions.
Stabilizer Muscles Help Keep Your
Body Steady During A Lift.
Now if you think about it, these muscles sound pretty important. If you didn't have stabilizer muscles your knees would buckle during squats and your elbows during the bench press. The good thing is that if you've been doing many full-range-of-motion, free-weight movements you've already been training them.
Free-weight movements, which includes any exercise done with a barbell, dumbbell or cable (I consider cables redirected dumbbells, as you are not lifting the weight in a guided path) require you to balance the weights yourself, as you are not lifting the weight in a pre-set path, as with machines.
The Methods:
During A Squat Your Body Needs To
Stabilize Itself More Than During Curls.
The Workout:
Much like how a foundation stabilizes a house, your stabilizer muscles help to keep you balanced and upright when moving. Your stabilizer muscles are not directly involved in the lifting of the weight, but help keep your body steady, through isometric muscle contractions.
Stabilizer Muscles Help Keep Your
Body Steady During A Lift.
Now if you think about it, these muscles sound pretty important. If you didn't have stabilizer muscles your knees would buckle during squats and your elbows during the bench press. The good thing is that if you've been doing many full-range-of-motion, free-weight movements you've already been training them.
Free-weight movements, which includes any exercise done with a barbell, dumbbell or cable (I consider cables redirected dumbbells, as you are not lifting the weight in a guided path) require you to balance the weights yourself, as you are not lifting the weight in a pre-set path, as with machines.
The Methods:
- 1. Free Weights:
- When doing free weight movements, your stabilizer muscles contract in order to keep your body steady. Since stabilizer muscles are important to free-weight movements, it makes sense to train those using free weights.
Exercises that recruit a great number of muscles are better for strengthening your stabilizer muscles. For example, during the squat your body needs to stabilize itself more than if you were performing curls. Some of the best exercises include: Bench Press, Squat, Deadlift, Pull-ups, Rows, and Shoulder Press.
- When doing free weight movements, your stabilizer muscles contract in order to keep your body steady. Since stabilizer muscles are important to free-weight movements, it makes sense to train those using free weights.
During A Squat Your Body Needs To
Stabilize Itself More Than During Curls.
- 2. Unilateral Exercises:
- Adding in single arm/leg exercises to your program will not only help to increase the strength of your stabilizer muscles, but will help significantly correct any muscular imbalances in your physique. These exercises will be done using dumbbells or cables. E.g. the barbell bench press is a great exercise for strengthening/building your chest, shoulders, and triceps but, dumbbell benching is better for shoulder stability.
Some of the best exercises include: Dumbbell Bench Press/1-Arm Dumbbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Rows/1-Arm Dumbbell Row, Single-Leg Squats, Lunges, Step-Ups, Dumbbell Curls, and Dumbbell Triceps Extensions.
- Adding in single arm/leg exercises to your program will not only help to increase the strength of your stabilizer muscles, but will help significantly correct any muscular imbalances in your physique. These exercises will be done using dumbbells or cables. E.g. the barbell bench press is a great exercise for strengthening/building your chest, shoulders, and triceps but, dumbbell benching is better for shoulder stability.
The Workout:
- This workout designed for strengthening your stabilizer muscles, and will utilize a three-day split.
- Monday: Chest, Triceps, And Shoulders.
- Tuesday: Off Or Cardio.
- Wednesday: Legs, Abs, And Lower Back.
- Thursday: Off Or Cardio.
- Friday: Back, Biceps, and Traps.
- Saturday: Off Or Cardio.
- Sunday: Off.
- Barbell Bench Press: Work up to a heavy set of 5 reps.
- One-Arm Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 4 Sets Of 8 Reps (each arm)
- Dumbbell Chest Flyes: 3 Sets Of 10 Reps
- Alternating Dumbbell Tricep Extensions: 3 Sets Of 10-12 Reps
- Dumbbell Front Raises: 3 Sets Of 12-15 Reps
- Deadlift: Work up to a heavy set of 5 reps.
- Front Squat: 3 Sets Of 6-8 Reps
- Barbell Step-Ups: 3 Sets Of 10-12 Reps
- Weighted Back Raises: 3 Sets Of 15-20 Reps
- Leg Extensions: 3 Sets Of 12-15 Reps
- Weighted Sit-Ups: 3 Sets Of 12-15 Reps
- Weighted Pull-Ups: 4 Sets Of 6 Reps
- One-Arm Dumbbell Row: 3 Sets Of 8-10 Reps (each)
- Close-Grip Lat Pulldown: 3 Sets Of 10-12 Reps
- Dumbbell Rear Delt Flyes: 3 Sets Of 12-15 Reps
- Alternating Dumbbell Hammer Curls: 3 Sets Of 12 Reps (each)
- One-Arm Dumbbell Shrugs: 3 Sets Of 12-15 Reps (each)
As you can see this workout incorporates both free weight and unilateral exercises, both of which are vital for strengthening your stabilizer muscles. Also as most lifters are fully aware off, free-weight exercises are the exercises that generally give you the most bang for your buck; so they should make up the majority of your program regardless. After 3-4 weeks these exercises can be changed up, as variety is one of the keys to steady progression.
The people who would benefit most from training their stabilizer muscles are lifters who rarely use free weights, non-lifters and possibly people with balance issues. Individuals who use only machines are selling themselves short of full muscule development.
- Machine equipment forces the lifter to lift the weight in a pre-set, guided path (e.g. the leg press, or chest press); this takes many of the stabilizer muscles out of the movement because the lifter is no longer required to balance the weight.
Non-lifters or people who have problems balancing themselves during certain activities, can benefit from this type of training. Even non-lifters who are very active will not have the muscular and stabilizer muscle development of a dedicated bodybuilder.
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