The Missed Move For Better Stability & Glute Training

Jessica Bento, Physical Therapist (Creator DVRT Restoration, DVRT Rx Shoulder, Knees, Pelvic Control, & Gait Courses)

It’s just circus tricks nothing more 

I have seen this comment a few times, of course on the good old social media platforms, never to my face, right ? 

“This is just a bunch of circus tricks!”  And yes an “! ” is often times used expressing their anger at what they just saw. 

It’s disheartening most of the time, as at DVRT Fitness we put a lot of thought into what we do and back every thing with the most current literature and science in the health and fitness industry. 

I know deep down its really someone saying, “ I don’t understand what is I am seeing and therefore I don’t like it.” But often times there is a well thought out and written description that goes along with any video we post but usually that goes unread nowadays. 

So what I am talking about? Well, a lot actually, but I can start with something that I utilize often and that is the balance step. When people see a balance step, for some reason they think it is a  dance move or that I am adding in unnecessary movements or just trying to complicate things more than you need to. 

Coming from a rehab background the balance step is an amazing way to own the movement but also challenge the movement. What do I mean? Going into a movement, lets say lateral lunge, to a balance step adds in a bit of instability and balance work, it progresses the movement. It also tells me that someone really owns that frontal plane stability that the lateral lunge to balance step offers. For many reading this it also meets the goal of ensuring we are using all the gluteal muscles correctly and learning how to create the type of hip extension that gives us real power and strength.

Below I demonstrate the balance step in a few different ways through a rear step USB clean, lift and chop step up, and then lateral shouldering. All to a balance step. Don’t get me wrong, these are challenging drills and they might appear to look easy but they really. The balance step shows I not only can quickly react to the need for higher level stability but gain full extension as well. 

 

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Often times I will also use a march where I go into a single leg stance similar to the balance step. Again, this is to challenge the movement, often times focusing on pelvic stability and core strength in much more challenging positions. Simply a progression which people often miss.

You will be surprised how many people lack the ability to create proper stability and strength in the balance step.

Performing something that sounds so simple such as a march is often challenging when you bring more resistance in. Below I show several ways I would progress the deadbug but utilizing more of a march. In the first one I do go into the balance step as we talked about prior, the lift chop lunge to balance step.

Progressing into more single leg training is apart of most programming yet we don’t really see a lot  of balance step or marching in most programming whereas it can be very beneficial to improve ones unilateral strength and can be apart of any program whether is rehab or fitness. So instead of looking at it like a circus trick look at it as challenging the movement and working towards better single leg strength, balance and stability. 

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