Ankle Injured? Work on Your Core

My buddy Dave always makes fun of the fact that when anything is injured, he is always told to work on his core. “Oh your ankle is hurting? Well strengthen your core and then stretch your hamstrings”.  Dave’s right, we do tell people to work on their core over and over. It does seem like it’s the new trend.

But it really does help, for everything! If you think of your core as what it is, the core of your body and your limbs are extensions of that. To effectively move your limbs you need to have a strong core. Here is a great running article by Matt Fitzgerald, in which he says:

“One of the most common errors we make in the practice of core conditioning is failing to train progressively. In order to enhance the stabilizing capacity of your core muscles, you have to bring them along step by step. Too many athletes fail to divide their core training into properly ordered stages, beginning with very basic exercises that help them to simply find the right muscles and advancing a step at a time from there.

Leaping straight into advanced core conditioning exercises makes about as much sense as running 22 miles on the first day of a beginner’s marathon training program. Sure, you may build some strength by doing these advanced exercises, but there’ll be little or no functional carryover to your sports movements, hence little or no benefit. The strongest abs in the world are useless if you can’t activate them functionally.”

For more about core check out a previous post I wrote or check out the above article for some great exercises. strengthen your core, even if  it’s just your ankle that hurts, so you can be stong like bull just like this guy: