Tuesday, December 14, 2010

No Magic Muscles

"The Relationship Between Hip-Abductor Strength and the Magnitude of Pelvic Drop in Patients With Low Back Pain- Kendall et al, JSR 12-10."


Pelvic drop in walking or running is not a good thing. It creates shear at the lumbar spine, is implicated in patellofemoral stress syndrome & medial tibial stress syndrome ("shin splints") et al.

These researchers wanted to know if strengthening the glut medius/minimus would improve the Trendelenburg sign (pelvic drop) during treadmill walking. This type of study has already been done studying floor exercise, but this one used, well, somewhat functional exercises. Interesting that while these two muscles did get stronger, it did not carry over to functional pelvic stability- the same result as the floor based strengthening exercises. But if you are a regular reader of my blog you'll understand why it didn't work. Remember Bosch's definition of strength training, "Coordination Training with resistance" and the outcome is no surprise.

1 comment:

Kev said...

Could you define pelvic drop since I am unable to view the article please? Is it in the frontal plane? Would farmer and waiter carries be an appropriate exercise to address the QL and GM in order to encourage stabilization of the pelvis and reduce lumbar shear?