An Evaluation of the Relationship Between Core Endurance and Lower Extremity Strength, and the Ability to Recover After Perturbation

Previous research suggests core strength training improves anticipatory postural adjustments, reducing one’s risk of a fall, and stronger core muscles lead to faster reaction times. This study investigated whether core endurance and lower extremity strength relate to the time one needs to stabilize after being perturbed. An evaluation of ten participants while warming up determined each participant’s transition speed between walking and running. While each participant walked at his/her transition speed, the belts were stopped randomly at an acceleration rate of 2.7 m∙s-2 and ground reaction forces were recorded during balance recovery. Additionally, each participant completed a series of core endurance and lower extremity strength assessments, revealing a significant relationship only between hip extension and time to stability in the medial/lateral direction (r = .784, p = .012). Results contrasted expectations but match recent leanings in literature, suggesting isolated strength measures fail adequately to predict time to stability