Abdominal Core Strength, Fatigue, and Incidence of Low Back Pain in Distance Runners
Abstract
Thisstudyinvestigated absoluteand relativeabdominalstrength,fatigue,and lowbackpaindifferencesamong distance runners.Runners (45 female and 52 male) were evaluated by ABTEST for abdominal strength and fatigue.Age,gender,weight,andincidenceoflowbackpaindatawererecordedforeachparticipant.Runners wereself-classifiedintogroupsbasedontheirownperceivedleveloffitnessaseitherbeginner,intermediate,or advanced.Maximalabdominalforceandtherateoffatigueovera10secondtimeintervalwererecordedfor
everyparticipant.Relativeabdominalstrengthwasdeterminedbyadjustingforbodyweight. Differenceswere noted forabsoluteabdominalstrengthbetweenmaleand femalegroupswithmaleshavingsignificantlygreater force.Femaleadvanceddistancerunnerspossessedgreaterabsoluteabdominalstrengththan femalebeginner distancerunners.Nodifferenceswerefoundtoexistforabdominalfatigue,relativeabdominalstrength,orlow backpain.Agecomparisonsofabsoluteabdominalstrengthrevealedmoderatenegativecorrelationsformales andfemales.Conversely,agecomparisonsofabdominalfatigueresultedinamoderatecorrelationformales.Findings indicate that a strong core does not result in less low back pain, males and females do not differ in
abdominalfatigueorrelativeabdominalstrength,andthatagedeclinesinstrengthmaybemoderate
