The relationship between core stability and athletic performance

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORE STABILITY AND ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE PURPOSE: To investigate the relationship between athletic performance and core stability. A secondary purpose was to test the reliability of core stability measures in an athletic population. METHODS: Over a 2-week period, 21 collegiate Division II football players (height 184.70 ± 5.75 cm, weight 114.31 ± 18.30 kg) had core power (Medicine Ball Explosive Sit-up Throw Test [MBESTT; developed for this research] and a 60-s maximum sit-up test with a built-in 30-s test), core endurance (McGill protocol [McGill, 2007]), and a standardized testing battery for athletic performance measured. Athletic performance was assessed with 3-repetition maximums for the power clean, back squat, and bench press, as well as vertical jump height, and 40-m sprint time with a 20-m split time. Pearson correlations were used to determine relationships between core stability and athletic performance. Dependent T-tests and Pearson correlations were used to determine reliability. RESULTS: The 60-s and 30-s maximum sit-up tests and the McGill trunk flexion test best related to athletic performance. The 60-s test was significantly correlated (p .05) with the relative power clean (1.09 ± 0.17; r = .836), relative squat (1.64 ± 0.28; r = .608), relative bench press (1.24 ± 0.19; r = .590), vertical jump height (29.11 ± 3.70 in; r = .721), 40-m sprint time (5.26 ± 0.37 s; r = -.680), and 20-m sprint time (3.23 ± 0.27 s; r = -.803). The MBESTT was only significantly correlated to the absolute bench press (139.64 ± 18.55 kg; r = .496). There were no significant correlations between athletic performance and trunk extension, right flexion, and left flexion of the McGill protocol. Most of the core stability measures had acceptable field-based test reliability. DISCUSSION: The timed sit-up tests are specific to the measures of athletic performance in terms of being: (a) multiple repetitions; (b) explosive movement patterns; (c) under a minute in length; and (d) similar in trunk muscle activation intensities. CONCLUSION: The 60-s and 30-s sit-up tests were reliable and moderately correlated to measures of athletic performance, making them the best field-based core stability measures investigated.