Hey! Coach Risley, today is all about teaching you how to brace. We commonly understand that a brace is a big breath of air you take prior to a heavy lift or tensing of muscles to receive impact like a punch or tackling.
Bracing is a little bit more complex than that, it’s your ability to create stability by using your muscles. There are two main types of bracing otherwise known as internal and external stability:
Internal Stability
This is the more commonly understood one where you are using your muscles whether it’s located on the spine or intra-abdominal muscles to generate pressure and keep your body rigid to both give and receive force without compromising your preferred position.
External Stability
This is where you use an object to help you perform a feat of strength for example when doing a preacher curl or using a Lat pulldown machine, you’re externally braced against the pads to leverage yourself into targeting the muscles you wish to simulate.
However, there are many circumstances where you may need both internal and external stability. For example compound movements such as a Deadlift or Squat where you commonly need a belt to perform maximal strength you would not only need to use internal stability so you can keep your spine position rigid but will also need to use some external stability from the belt and also your grip to the bar to further increase your ability to stay in position and lift a maximal load.
Hope this helps you understand what bracing truly is so you not only can be strong but also stay safe doing resistance training, as always I’m here to help and always ready to chat when you need it. Talk to you next week!
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