Hello and welcome to the Runers Connect audio blog on the Run to the Top podcast. This is Coach Claire Bartholic and today I am reading

the relationship between hip strength and running injuries, the latest research, written

by John Davis.

Ask any fitness nut or personal trainer about core work

and you will be treated or not to a long spiel about the importance.

Core is a big buzzword these days and it has created an industry of

bosu balls, wobble boards, and ab rollers for everyone to stay up to date with the latest core

strengthening machine.

If you're not doing core work with the newest core workout, you are missing out, or so we are told.

But what's the science say about whether core workouts are useful to distance runners?

First, we have to figure out exactly what we mean when we say core.

Ask for a core workout from a personal trainer at a health club and he or she will probably give you a series of crunches, planks, and sit-ups.

However, core means something very different to a physiologist or an orthopedist. It means all of the muscles of the lower

trunk and pelvis, not just your abs and your back, but your hip flexors, glutes,

abductors, and adductors too.

These hip muscle groups are particularly important because they've been involved in a range of running injuries.

Weak hips can often be the cause been involved in a range of running injuries.

Weak hips can often be the cause of IT band pain,

patella tendonitis or runner's knee,

puriformis issues, sciatica,

and a myriad of other common running injuries.

Therefore, we are going to look at what the latest scientific research has to say about the relationship between hip strength and running injuries

...