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Trainer Tip
Sweat The Little Things – Stabilizer Muscles
Most people know the big muscles in the body that help us complete our favorite exercises. Our pectorals, triceps, and deltoids help us with pushing exercises, while our biceps, lats, and trapezius muscles help us with pulling exercises. These muscles are just some of our primary movers that we use to complete an exercise. Our little stabilizer muscles, on the other hand, are less commonly known but equally important. These muscles help stabilize joints to prevent damage while movement is occurring.

Stabilizer muscles have a number of roles; they support the trunk, limit movement in a joint, and control balance. All of these functions are crucial in preventing injury. The shoulder, hip, and trunk are 3 locations where stabilizer muscles play a huge role. All of these sites have high mobility and range of motion, which allow us to complete dynamic movements. This high mobility leads to an innately unstable joint. So why develop stabilizer muscles? In the weight room these muscles allow us to complete exercises safely and in many cases more powerfully. Outside of the weight room these muscles help in everyday activities that require the body to balance and study itself, like picking up a sack of groceries or walking up steps. Ask your trainer about developing your stabilizer muscles.