Stabilising Muscle Function in Joondalup
Your body is a complex network of muscles that are responsible for both strength and stabilisation.
The powerful strength ones produce movement while stabilising muscles protect and support joints and other tissues through shock absorption. They also maintain contraction for prolonged postures such as sitting at your desk or absorbing speed bumps in your car.
Your strength muscles develop with the help of strong exercises, such as lifting weights at the gym or doing sit-ups. Your biceps and quadriceps are two of the most well-known strength muscles. The stabilising muscles are smaller and deeper, requiring precise and often gentle exercises.
The Importance of Balance in Your Muscles
If your muscle function isn’t stabilised, the stress from your daily activates can damage the body. As your strength muscles get stronger, they can absorb more stress and increase the potential for damage. The stabilising muscles, therefore, need to be developed along with the strength muscles.
According to research, the stabilising muscles are usually weakened after an injury and cannot automatically re-strengthen. At Arena Joondalup Physiotherapy, we can assess your muscles and give you specific exercise to ensure a complete recovery and decrease the chances of the problem recurring.
The Lumbar Spine Muscles
Good spinal health requires the stabilising muscles in the lumbar spine to function properly. If you’re experiencing low back pain, your stabilising muscles may be weakened and are unable to protect or support the spine. The result is pain, a slow recovery and a high probability of reinjury.
Recent research shows the lower back’s stabilising muscles (called the transversus abdominis and multifidus) require specific exercises to regain strength. Exercises such as back arches and sit-ups can cause more harm by stressing the injured tissues or developing other muscles unnecessarily. Instead, we focus on stabilsing muscle function with the appropriate treatment that will help you experience a full recovery. One such tool is ultrasound imaging, which gives a real-time picture of muscles on a screen so that you can see how they’re functioning.
The Neck
Your neck’s stabilising muscles hold it in the proper position and are essential for correct movement and good posture. They also protect your spine from various microtraumas throughout the day. Ongoing research supports that the muscles in your neck can weaken over months and years from poor posture or in just days as the result of injury such as a car accident. Re-developing these muscles is essential to experiencing a full recovery. Neck-related headaches, too, can benefit from physiotherapy, through gentle exercises. We’ll discuss strengthening your postural muscles as well as what type of exercise programmes are appropriate so that you don’t experience a re-injury.
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