Purpose: To identify the main characteristics, based on available evidence, of stabilizer muscles to inform the development of a definition of stabilizer muscles. The highest number of articles providing supporting evidence that a particular muscle characteristic plays a stabilizing role related to biomechanical characteristics (27 articles), followed by neurological characteristics (22 articles) and anatomical/physiological characteristics (4 articles).
Conclusion: Based on a synthesis of supporting evidence from the literature, stabilizer muscles can be defined as 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.
These results may guide researchers to investigate which muscles exhibit these characteristics to determine whether particular muscles have a stabilizer rather than a prime mover role during normal functioning.