This is going to get fuzzy, because there isn’t really agreement on what stabilizer muscles even are. This 2014 study searched the literature for mentions of stabilizer muscles and attempted to put together a definition. Here’s what they came up with: "muscles that contribute to joint stiffness by co-contraction and show an early onset of activation in response to perturbation via either a feed-forward or a feedback control mechanism."
Taking this back to the scientific literature: you can find plenty of research on “lumbar [lower back] stabilizers” or “trunk [core] stabilizers” or “knee stabilizers.” But these don’t turn out to be specific muscles that only stabilize joints. This study on knee stabilizers names four muscles that are part of the quadriceps and hamstring muscle groups (the big muscle groups on the front and back of the thigh, respectively). Are those stabilizers, or are they simply muscles that move the legs?
One exercise’s stabilizers may be another’s main movers
Or to use another example: Single-leg exercises like step-ups and lunges are great for working your abductors (hip muscles) and adductors (inner thigh muscles) because those muscles work to keep your leg steady as you put weight on it. But if a person never did single leg exercises, they could still hit those muscles by doing exercises that target them as main movers, like the adductor and abductor machines.
So the way you keep your knees stable is not just by doing free weight exercises—although those are great—but also by doing running, jumping, pivoting, and cutting exercises. (Think soccer players running around cones and rope ladders.)
Strength and stability are sometimes at odds
So what should you do in the gym? You may notice that strong people usually train with a mix of exercises. They might squat and bench with a barbell, but finish off their sessions with a dumbbell bench press or the leg extension machine. There is a continuum to working out, with strength on one end and stability on the other, and each of those exercises falls at a different point on that continuum.
We can involve our stabilizers more if we were to do something like a dumbbell bench press with our back on a yoga ball. We would have to work harder to keep everything steady, but as a result, we wouldn’t be able to use nearly as much weight. We would be training stabilizers more but the main movers (chest and triceps) less.
So do you need to “train” your stabilizers?
My take is this: If you train every part of your body, no matter how you do it, you will end up training all your stabilizer muscles. Yes, even if you do an all-machine routine. The routine only has to be well-rounded.
You can easily get the best of both worlds by doing a variety of exercises. If you never do anything that makes you feel unstable, add some single-leg exercises, carries, or other slightly unstable work to your routine. (No need to stand on a bosu, although you can if you want, I guess.) And if you do a lot of stability work, try out some machines or barbell exercises once in a while to make sure you’re building strength too.
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