The simple exercises that target the small gluteus bracing muscles from the STABILITY Series No. 1 and No. 2, may at first appear as exercises meant for the very old or very weak, or as exercises done only until one is ready to go back to the gym for a “real” workout.
I’m here today to disavow you of this mistaken assumption.
Let me start with a story.
I have a middle-aged patient who is a record-setting weightlifter for his age and weight-group. He’s in another universe of strong, like guys on ESPN2 named Magnus who fling beer kegs for prize money.
He came to see me with pain in the back and knee.
We found that his small bracing muscles of the gluteus were weakened and his compensation for this weakness was causing his pain.
I had to deliver this diagnosis to a professional power-lifter, and he wasn’t easily persuaded.
I described bracing muscles and explained that rather than actively lifting the weight, these muscles instead stabilize the legs for walking hills and stairs, for jumping down, or for squatting, as he does to pick up the barbell.
Bracing muscle weakness destabilizes the leg, which can lead to pain in the knee, hip and back.
Finally, he experienced a breakthrough when he realized that while squatting down to pick up the bar he had to deeply concentrate to keep his left knee from buckling in.
He was compensating by actively pushing his left knee out as he bent down and stood back up with the weight, and he’d been doing it throughout his career.
After this realization, he spent the next several months working on some of the exercises I present in The STABILITY Series.
If small bracing muscles were strengthened by lifting weights, anyone with all of my client’s years of experience and training would have developed strong and capable bracing muscles and wouldn’t need to compensate by pushing the knee out.
Now, he starts every workout by doing his stabilization exercises, before working to strengthen his action muscles.
The goal is to view stability exercise as an entirely different type of exercise, and prioritize the stabilization workout as necessary and the weightlifting as secondary.
Proper bracing muscle stability allows action muscle strengthening without injury.
Weightlifting by itself doesn’t provide stability, only strength.
As you watch and engage with these exercises, remember that they are designed to strengthen these bracing muscles that provide stability, and you should do them for as long as you are active, whether you choose to do a strength workout separately or not.
Stability Exercise #3: Deep Bracing Muscles of the Spine
This exercise is for the bracing muscles of the spine.
Be aware: this exercise is much harder to master than the gluteus exercises described earlier in this Series.
The first step is to locate and isolate the bracing muscle without compensating with the surrounding action muscles. This may require spending days doing only the muscle-finding part before progressing to the actual exercise.
In the effort to find these muscles, make sure that you are not tightening your hamstrings or rotating your pelvis.
If this exercise proves too difficult to execute, you may need to consult with a physical therapist or other professional.
Good luck.
