Hawkes Physiotherapy Blog

Here is the latest article in the running blog series. This particular article will focus on nutrition for runners. The average individual expends 1,800 to 3,000 calories per day but some athletes can use more than 10,000 calories depending on the sport (Wilmore & Costill 1994). So that’s quite a window (3,000 to 10,000) So that’s not overly helpful . What do the professional athletes eat? Men consumed 3,055 calories per day, while the women consumed 2,391. On average, they got 27% of their calories from fat, 20% from protein, and 55% from carbohydrate (Erdman et al 2013). However these athletes weren’t all endurance athletes but it gives us a good idea. So what do the elite Kenyan distance runners consume? Well it depends on the gender, the distance they run and the bodyweight that they are, but generally it’s around 5000 calories on average and this is broken down as follows: About 10.4 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight (Onywer...

Firstly, you need to know what core stability is. The medical definition is the following: Core stability is defined as the ability to control the position and motion of the trunk over the pelvis to allow optimum production, transfer and control of force and motion to the terminal segment in integrated athletic activities. Core muscle activity is best understood as the pre-programmed integration of local, single-joint muscles and multi-joint muscles to provide stability and produce motion. Where does it come from? Core stability started in the late 1990’s. It was derived from studies that demonstrated a change in timing of the trunk muscles in back injury and chronic lower back pain (CLBP) patients. However, there have been assumptions on how this relates to injury prevention and sporting performance: Certain muscles are more important for stabilisation of the spine, in particular transverse abdominis (TrA): Transverse abdominis is absent or ...