The importance of lateral stability in athletes

For the last two years I have worked as an exercise physiologist alongside the best physical therapists. I have had the pleasure of working with many athletes and one of the most common deficiencies I encounter is lateral trunk stability. Think of your torso as a soda can. Poor trunk stability means your “can” will crumble under load, leading to poor power transfer and production. Your torso needs to be stabilized in all directions, and a lack of stability in one or more parts means less power and a higher risk of injury.

Some of the main muscles involved in the lateral stability of the trunk are the obliques, the quadratus lumbar, and the gluteus medius. They are vital in stabilizing and producing force through your abdomen. If they are not trained properly or with the correct exercises, they can fall behind in terms of developing the largest and most powerful muscles, such as the hamstrings, quads, and gluteus maximus.

This is a recipe for limiting your strength / power, as underdeveloped stabilizing muscles will literally “slow down” force production by sending inhibitory signals to the brain. This occurs when the weaker stabilizer muscles detect force production that they believe will cause injury. This limited force production means less power when running, changing direction, or doing that maximum effort squat. The imbalance could also lead to back / hip / knee pain due to muscles like the TFL and “tightening” / spasm of the Quadratus Lumborum to add additional stability.

Loaded load variations are a simple and effective way to add some lateral stability work to your workout. They are great for learning to hold and improving the ability to transfer force through the torso. This includes variations like:

-Farmers walk with dumbbells, kettlebell, farmers walk with handles

-The kettlebell is carried on the rack and in the upper position.

-If you don’t have equipment, you can get creative and use a buddy for fire transports.

The load can be varied using different weights, attachments or positions on each side. For example, carry a kettlebell in the rack position in your left hand and over your head in your right. The standard that farmers carry is a great level to start with, once mastered some of the more advanced variations can be used to take your trunk stability to the next level.

The following link on YouTube provides a video on some carry variations that you can start to implement in your training. If you don’t have access to kettlebells, dumbbells can be used instead. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVTTgdZ5Is8

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