Often times, we workout and exercise in the hopes of building as much muscle as possible. We care more about having those bulging biceps and six pack abs rather than the countless other muscles that hold everything together. After all, how many times have you seen a guy turn heads flexing his erector spinae? That’s right, zero. However, stabilizer muscles are essential and have benefits because they provide support and balance for the entire body.

Although stabilizer muscles don’t necessarily build your body up, they keep you balanced and upright when working out. They provide the balance and support for taxing compound lifts, allowing you to perform major exercises such as squats and deadlifts. Without this stabilization, you would not be able to produce as much force in these compound lifts, which will prevent you from building as much strength as possible. In a sense, your stabilizer muscles are the unsung heros of the kinetic chain, allowing other muscles to produce force as prime movers. The large muscles in the body (back, chest, legs, arms, etc.) are your prime movers because they are the primary muscles involved in the activation of many of the major joints within the body. Therefore, if you have weak stabilizer muscles then you will put extra stress on these prime movers, reducing overall strength and increasing the chances of injury. Think of your body like a building. There needs to be something that supports the building from falling. Consider these as your stabilizer muscles.

If you’re an athlete then you really need to focus on stabilizer muscles. Sports involve a lot of situations in which one must produce force while moving or while off-balance. If you’re a football player and you are getting tackled, you need the stabilizer muscles to keep you balanced so you can break the tackle. Or let’s look at basketball. If you’re driving through the lane for a layup, you need your body to be balanced and steady. You are twisting and turning your entire body to get to the rim. A lot of this is your stabilizer muscles. It’s essential for athletes to train their stabilizer muscles to really excel in their sports.

Many of us who lift weights fail to properly use stabilizer muscles. For example, if you rely on the smith machine or machine-based movements, you really aren’t using your precious stabilizer muscles. This is because these machines do the balancing for you. When you work with free weights or resistance bands, you are using all your smaller, stabilizer muscles to hold the weight and perform the movement. It’s essentially all about balance. There is no exercise that is just going to work your stabilizer muscles. You are going to work your prime movers whenever you work your stabilizer muscles. However, the bench press, deadlift and squat are three of the best compound exercises to really hit the stabilizer muscles. Try to incorporate these workouts in your daily routine.