Core Endurance vs Core Strength in Relation to Non-Specific Low Back Pain
By Brian Romero
Core Strength versus Core Endurance, What Do You Think Helps Decrease Low Back Pain?
Muscular Strength: The amount of force you can put out or the amount of weight you can lift.
Muscular Endurance: The ability of a given muscle to exert force, consistently and repetitively, over a period of time.
The core musculature includes the abdominals anteriorly, the paraspinals and gluteals posteriorly, the diaphragm superiorly, and the pelvic floor and hip girdle inferiorly. One of the most important jobs of the “core” is to stabilize the spine during dynamic movement, which will then decrease the load on other joints, thus decreasing risk of injury.
It is said that low back pain (LBP) is responsible for up to 30% of musculoskeletal complaints occurring amongst the athletic population. That being said, it has also been proven that LBP is associated with altered motor coordination and increased fatiguability of the trunk muscles (lack of core endurance).
We should all embrace the love/hate relationship we have with doing core exercises, feel free to email Brian, bromerodc@gmail.com, if you have any questions or want to know about specific exercises that can help build core endurance!
*Abdelraouf, O. R., & Abdel-Aziem, A. A. (2016). THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORE ENDURANCE AND BACK DYSFUNCTION IN COLLEGIATE MALE ATHLETES WITH AND WITHOUT NONSPECIFIC LOW BACK PAIN. International journal of sports physical therapy, 11(3), 337–344.