While emphasizing stability and core strength is certainly an important part of a workout, it is not good practice to focus more on the core at the expense of other parts of the body. An all-encompassing approach that puts more consideration on the whole rather than the parts is a much better approach.
Recent years have seen that a large number of professional fitness training programs have focused on stability and core strength above everything else. While these two areas are no doubt important, what costs have there been to the potential of areas such as the shoulder, knee, hip, and ankle?
Imagine an athlete that’s been focused on working out their core strength and stability throughout their training regimen. If they get into joint structures and limbs.
While it’s not going to simply be one or the other, core strength should be seen as just one part of a fully inclusive and comprehensive workout that emphasizes a holistic view of all parts of the body.
The Holistic Approach
There are a variety of reasons to stability:
It increases movement accuracy.
It provides more force and speed.
It improves successive muscle use.
It allows much more efficient compound muscle movement.
It can prevent injury.
It helps the body cope better to the demands of rigorous activity.
It’s important for a trainer to a comprehensive view of the patient’s body, where every individual body part is observed as part of the whole. Rather than ‘core strength,’ we should be looking at overall stability levels when discussing controlled movement and motion.
While the answer to you, consider what methods you do utilize with your clients:
Are you mindful of stability in the shoulder, knee, hip, and ankle areas?
Do you regularly switch between session formats and exercises?
How well are you able to assess technique, correct posture, and joint stability?
Are you having the patient train the same muscles from different angles?
Do you consider changing the regimen in regards to exercising on grass versus concrete?
Are you clients being trained to move with rotation, vertically, laterally, forward, and backward?
Properly identifying instability can be an incredibly complex skill that will require a large breadth of skills in physiology, anato ensure overall improvement.
In order for you to better manage and assess stability at every level, consider the following:
Study physiology and anatomy
Do research about stability online
Choose one joint on the client and observe it individually over a week’s time
Pay close attention to clients while they’re doing lunge and rotate movements, as this should highlight stability
Get your clients to detail any previous injuries they’ve had
Maintaining a balanced program relies on looking at stability at all levels, and adopting this standpoint will help your clients transition from easier to more difficult movements.
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About the Author
Dr. Lev Kalika is a world-recognized expert in musculoskeletal ultrasonography, with 20+ years of clinical experience in advanced rehabilitative medicine. In addition to operating his clinical practice in Manhattan, he regularly publishes peer-reviewed research on ultrasound-guided therapies and procedures.
Dr. Kalika is an esteemed member of the International Society for Medical Shockwave Treatment ((SMST), and the only clinician in New York certified by the ISMST to perform extracorporeal shockwave therapy. He is also an active member of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM), and has developed his own unique approach to dynamic functional and fascial ultrasonography.
In this instance, an athlete was originally diagnosed with minor quadriceps muscle strain and was treated for four weeks, with unsatisfactory results. When he came to our clinic, the muscle was not healing, and the patients’ muscle tissue had already begun to atrophy.
Upon examination using MSUS, we discovered that he had a full muscle thickness tear that had been overlooked by his previous provider. To mitigate damage and promote healing, surgery should have been performed immediately after the injury occurred. Because of misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment, the patient now has permanent damage that cannot be corrected.
The most important advantage of Ultrasound over MRI imaging is its ability to zero in on the symptomatic region and obtain imaging, with active participation and feedback from the patient. Using dynamic MSUS, we can see what happens when patients contract their muscles, something that cannot be done with MRI. From a diagnostic perspective, this interaction is invaluable.
Dynamic ultrasonography examination demonstrating the full thickness tear and already occurring muscle atrophy due to misdiagnosis and not referring the patient to proper diagnostic workup
Demonstration of how very small muscle defect is made and revealed to be a complete tear with muscle contraction under diagnostic sonography (not possible with MRI)
Complete tear of rectus femoris with large hematoma (blood)
Separation of muscle ends due to tear elicited on dynamic sonography examination
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