Some years ago I was watching the women’s giant slalom event at the winter Olympics. That particular day conditions were quite icy and there had been some talk of rescheduling the event. In the end they did, but not before several competitors fell. Big time. As in cartoon character snowball head over heels big time.
What interested me was that two competitors fell in pretty much exactly the same way in exactly the same place, but with very different outcomes. One was back competing in the rescheduled event the next day. For the other, her Olympics were done. Now, one could put this down to differences in body type, speed, or just dumb luck, but I got wondering about what role stability played in it.
One would think that Olympic athletes, with their expert trainers and therapists, would not have any issues with stability. However, with careful observation subtle issues can be observed. These issues are indeed extremely subtle and for the average person would not cause a problem, but when you are hurtling down a mountain at 90 km/h carving sharp turns, the extremely subtle becomes make or break.
How does this translate to us mere mortals? Well, the issue is the same. If we have any kind of instability it will cause us problems as we push our bodies. If you have instability in a hip, it may not be a problem if you are inactive, but if you decide to take up long distance running it could potentially result in shin splints or knee pain as other areas take the stress. If you have instability in your neck and you have a car accident you are at much higher risk of having longstanding problems with whiplash.
Stability is what holds us together when forces (like your head getting thrown forward when you get rear-ended, or the impact of a fall) threaten to tear us apart. This isn’t just about brute strength. It is about coordinated and balanced activity in multiple muscles simultaneously. We can all benefit from better stability, even if we never intend to hurtle down a mountain wearing nothing but a helmet and a high-tech suit.