Tag: injuries

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My new Sweat Science columns are being published at www.outsideonline.com/sweatscience. Also check out my new book, THE EXPLORER'S GENE: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, published in March 2025.

- Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience)

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A pair of new studies from the University of Michigan offers an interesting take on how to prevent knee injuries like the ever-common ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears. What they’ve found is that the “wrong move” that leads to the injury may result as much from fatigue in your central nervous system as from physical fatigue in the knee or joint itself. That means we may want to change the kinds of preventive exercises we do to focus more on our brains and reflexes. Continue reading “Preventing knee injuries with mental training”

THANK YOU FOR VISITING SWEATSCIENCE.COM!

My new Sweat Science columns are being published at www.outsideonline.com/sweatscience. Also check out my new book, THE EXPLORER'S GENE: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, published in March 2025.

- Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience)

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Last year, I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Reed Ferber, who runs the Running Injury Clinic at the University of Calgary. He’s a big believer in the role of hip strength in promoting proper biomechanics — in one seven-month study he performed, 92 percent of the injured runners who reported to his clinic had abnormally weak hip muscles, and 89 percent of them improved with a four- to six-week hip strengthening program. (Read more about his research, and the exercises he recommends, in this Jockology column.)

I mention this in light of a study that researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago are conducting, trying to see if strengthening hip muscles can relieve pain and slow the progression of arthritis in the knees.

The exercises focus on strengthening the hip abductor muscles, such as the gluteus medius, a broad, thick, radiating muscle that helps to stabilize the pelvis during ambulation. In patients with osteoarthritis in the knees, these muscles tend to be weak, causing the pelvis to tilt toward the side of the swing leg when walking, instead of remaining level with the ground, which increases the load on the knee joints. Strengthening these muscles helps the pelvis and the knee remain in better alignment, and thereby lessens the load.

Sounds like the same principles at work — I’m sure Dr. Ferber will be watching carefully to see the results of this study.

THANK YOU FOR VISITING SWEATSCIENCE.COM!

My new Sweat Science columns are being published at www.outsideonline.com/sweatscience. Also check out my new book, THE EXPLORER'S GENE: Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map, published in March 2025.

- Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience)

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[updated to include pictures of how to do the exercise]

The annual meeting of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine is taking place right now in Colorado. Among the research being presented is a new approach to “tennis elbow,” which apparently affects three percent of the population. The study took 21 patients and gave them both the standard conservative treatment (stretching, ultrasound, massage, heat and ice), and then split them into two groups for wrist strengthening exercises:

The eccentric training group performed isolated eccentric wrist extensor strengthening using the rubber bar (Flexbar, Akron OH) while the standard treatment group performed isotonic wrist strengthening exercises.

Apparently the fancy rubber bar worked so well that they halted the trial early to let the controls get the good stuff, which is generally a sign that the researchers are seeing a very strong effect. Given how much of a nuisance tennis elbow can be, this seems like good news. The only problem is that I have no idea what an isolated eccentric wrist exercise with a rubber bar looks like. I’ve asked for some further description or diagrams to help clarify, and I’ll post them here when I get them.

Update: I just received a copy of the research paper, along with some pictures to illustrate the exercises. Continue reading “Fixing tennis elbow with a “rubber bar” [updated with pics]”