Exercises for runners: strengthening the hips

No matter how we tried, from time to time during training there are unpleasant sensations in certain parts of the body. Weaknesses runners: the feet, the periosteum and, of course, his knees. Unpleasant sensation of pain can arise for a variety of reasons, but the result is always the same: slowdown or interruption of training. The amount of research in this area is increasing every year and the last of them point to a relationship between the problems in the knees and hips... weak.

For example, in one of the published studies it has been said that women, who have earned a "runner's knee" has been featured hip instability. Another study, conducted last year, also showed that people who suffer from pain in the knee, after jogging there is great weakness in the hips than those who never complained about a problem knees.

That is, in order to get rid of problems with his knees, need to be addressed not only to the strengthening of knees, but also pay special attention to the condition of his hips and body, and work on them more hard.

During researchConducted in Canada and the United States, two groups were created out of 199 people suffering from patellofemoral pain at least 4 weeks, the pain should not be caused by trauma, but too big physical loads. Thus, the subjects were divided into two groups, which were held in a rehabilitation program within 6 weeks, the amount of exercise - 3 times a week.

In the first group program focuses on exercises to strengthen the knee and thigh muscles. They performed exercises such as stretching the knees and the floor of the squat. The second group worked on strengthening the muscles of the thigh and body. Their training included exercises with hip abduction and balancing on unstable surfaces.

After the end of the program 157, or 78.9% of participants reported that the pain in her knees decreased significantly, and increased performance. If you look at the difference in the improvement of the groups, it was not significant: exercises for the knees and hips - 77%, exercises for the thighs, and body muscles - 80.2%.

However, the difference was noticeable during the time the first symptoms of improvement: in the group, which places great emphasis on strengthening improvements were visible after 3 weeks of training, and the group with a focus on strengthening the knee felt it only after the 4th week.

For the common man, this difference is not important, however, for an injured runner before the race is important and every day for a week before recovery is very important. Moreover, by paying more attention to strengthening the hips you insure yourself from knee problems in the future.

And now for the practice.

Exercises to strengthen the hips

video №1

This video shows exercises that were carried out during the above studies.

video №2

Exercises to strengthen the thighs and gluteal muscles.

video №3

These three exercises will help not only to strengthen the hips, but also improve your ability to maintain balance.

video №4

A series of exercises from Asics.

I hope that you enjoy this collection and you select for themselves something useful, because in order to run quickly and without injury, you need to work on the whole body.