U of C study shows weak hips to blame for most running injuries

A landmark study from the University of Calgary's new Running Injury Clinic suggests bad knees have been getting a bum rap.

While most running injuries happen in the knees and lower legs, it turns out their root cause is almost always weak hip muscles. So runners should stop blaming faulty knees for causing them so much pain as they jog and start strengthening their hips.

The surprising news came Tuesday when Reed Ferber, who runs the clinic and is a professor with the university's faculties of kinesiology and nursing, announced the results of his study, Biomechanical Approach to Rehabilitation of Lower Extremity Musculoskeletal Injuries In Runners.

"I think this is a good news study for people who are living with chronic running pain," Ferber says. "You can do something about it."

Ferber was stunned to discover that of 284 patients who visited his clinic complaining of leg pain over a period of seven months, 92 per cent had weak hip muscles.

As part of each patient's consultation, he gave them a program to improve hip strength, along with other recommendations to speed their recovery.

The results, say Ferber, were even more astonishing: 89 per cent of the patients reported a significant improvement in pain within four to six weeks. Hip-strengthening exercises helped everyone from senior citizens who take long walks to young runners who participate in races.

While strong hips aren't a guarantee against future running injuries, Ferber says improving the strength in your hips is a great way to reduce the number and severity of lower-leg running injuries.

"Certainly there are a lot of factors in running injuries," Ferber says. "But the commonality is that (lack of) hip strength."

Ferber says runners and walkers need hip muscle strength to stabilize their leg every time it hits the ground after a stride.

Weak hip muscles fail to keep the lower leg aligned with the upper leg after each footfall, putting extra strain on the knees and lower leg muscles. After thousands of impacts, this strain eventually leads to injuries in the knees and lower legs.

Sylvie Boivin, a 47-year-old computer analyst and marathon runner who runs four or five times a week, now knows how important strong hips are. But when she visited Ferber at the clinic 18 months ago she had no idea that weak hips were to blame for two years of chronic pain in her right leg's iliotibial band and hip.

As part of a running injury evaluation, Ferber assessed Boivin's hip strength. He sent her away with a few simple exercises to do at home with a resistance band.

"After about four weeks the pain went away," Boivin says. "It was amazing. The guy's a genius."

Boivin has kept her hips strong ever since, and remains pain-free.

"Running really all comes from the hips," she says.

Ferber plans to continue expanding the subject group for the study by examining hip strength as part of the assessment of every patient who comes to his clinic for a running injury evaluation.

Ferber says his clinic, the only one of its kind in Canada, examined more than 1,600 patients in the last three years while it was located at Mount Royal College. During that time, he says 90 per cent of his patients reported being pain-free within four to six weeks of their initial consultation.

Ferber recently moved his clinic to the U of C. The move allows him to use the latest running-related research from the university's Human Performance Lab and to send patients for therapy at the university's Sports Medicine Centre.

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For more information or to schedule a running injury evaluation, visit the clinic website, runninginjuryclinic.com.

Story By: Trent Edwards, Calgary Herald
Published: Thursday, June 07, 2007
tedwards@theherald.canwest.com