Over the last 10 years there has been ongoing controversy amongst health and movement professionals as to whether training specific local muscles to control joint movement is necessary. It is true that local stabiliser muscles do not work in isolation from global muscles in normal function. But does this mean that there is no place for specifically isolating them in the initial phase of training? What do we mean by training? Is it training for fitness and conditioning, for injury prevention, or to rehabilitate an injury?

We conducted a review of randomised control trials to see what evidence showed with regard to the specific motor control training of stabiliser muscles.

Below is a summary of the systematic review:

Specific motor control exercises (SME) are commonly prescribed in the treatment of lower back pain (LBP). Previous systematic reviews give conflicting evidence in support of SME over other forms of intervention for LBP. This is probably due to the heterogeneity of patient groups causing a washout effect.

We reviewed SME for lumbo-pelvic pain of articular origin. Five papers met the inclusion criteria for the review. The results showed moderate evidence for the use of SME for articular lumbo-pelvic pain when used alone (chronic pain); combined with another form of active treatment (chronic and sub-acute pain); combined with medical management and return to normal activities (acute pain). This review provides moderate support for the use of SME for articular lumbo-pelvic pain. There does appear to be a group of patients with LBP that SME can benefit.

In the case of joint injury in the lumbo-pelvic area, specific motor control training for the local stabiliser muscles is shown to be effective when compared to other forms of treatment. Specific local stability muscle training should be integrated into general stability training and functional training and not left in isolation, as the majority of the studies indicated. These studies show the importance of specific motor control exercises for joint pain.

The lumbar spine workshop will show the practical application of this research into the clinical setting

Gibbons SGT and Clark J (2009) Specific motor control exercises for lumbo-pelvic pain of articular origin: A systematic review. Manual Therapy. 14 (S1): S16-17.