-STABILITY: WHEN PERFORMING A PHYSICAL EXERCISE.

Maintaining a stable (balanced) body is necessary to ensure safety during exercise execution. Stability also helps produce the desired results when using free weights. With machine weights, when you assume the necessary position, abdominal contracted, flat feet on the floor, there is little need to balance your body as you execute the exercise. (This is based on the premise that the machines allow you to do the exercise correctly.)For example, when doing an overhead press the muscles of the legs and trunk must contract to hold you in place. The trunk must be rigid to provide a stable base for effective contraction of the shoulder muscles. If not, any change in the balance of the weights overhead may make you lose your balance, which in turn could cause injury, especially if you lose control of the weights. The basic principles of stability are simple: The larger your base of support, the greater your stability. This is why you should most often assume a position with the feet approximately shoulder width or wider. Standing with your feet together results in a very small support base, which will not give you the foundation needed for stability when doing heavy lifts, especially overhead lifts.Another way of increasing stability is to bend your knees in order to lower your center of gravity (where your weight is concentrated). The lower your body is, the more stable you become. For example, in order to prevent lower body movement and keep the spine vertical during shoulder (upper body) twisting, it is important that you bend your knees to stabilize the lower body and hips. This will keep the spine from falling out of alignment and limit the movement to the shoulders. The bent-knee position also helps to prevent knee injuries. Foot placement also plays an important role. If your feet are parallel and shoulder-width apart, the weight should be close to you or overhead. This is the preferred stance in most exercises because you have good stability in a left to right direction. In a stride position (e.g., cable overhead triceps press) you can better balance the weight in a forward-backward direction. When lying on a bench, always place the feet on the floor. This increases sideward stability. Keeping the feet on the bench creates an unstable position — especially when you use heavy weights and/or a barbell. It becomes even more important to keep the feet on the floor when doing explosive or throwing actions.
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