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Does a weak core raise the risk of injuries in athletes? Researchers find out

It turns out, your core could be putting you on the sidelines

By Steph Green Dec 14, 2025 5:00 AM

men playing football soccer — Anh Le Men / Pexels

Your core is a central part of your body that includes your abdominal muscles, pelvis, lower back, and glutes. You use these muscles every day for stability and to perform your daily functional activities. In general, core exercises improve your balance, flexibility, posture, and overall physical performance. One study revealed that just two weeks of core stabilization exercises significantly reduced lower back pain.

A weak core could really be holding you back and keeping athletes on the sidelines. Let’s explore the research.

Core stability and the risk of injuries

In research published in the journal Physical Therapy in Sport, the goal was to explore and summarize the literature to determine the role of core stability as a risk factor in the development of lower extremity injuries in athletes. Put simply, does a weaker core heighten your risk of lower-body injuries? The researchers reviewed nine eligible, quality studies relating to core muscle functioning and core stability and lower body injuries, such as knee, hip, or leg strains.

The research results

The research revealed the following results:

Poor core stability and core control was linked to a higher risk of injury.
In particular, the lower the core strength of the abs, hips, and lower back, the higher the risk of injury.
Neuromuscular control refers to the ability of the brain and muscles to facilitate movement, and this also played a role, meaning that if neuromuscular control was lower, athletes were more likely to get lower-body injuries.

Core endurance

Core endurance is the duration you can hold or engage your core muscles without getting too tired. For example, better core endurance means you can activate these muscles for longer before having to give up. The studies showed mixed results, with some concluding that poor core endurance increased injury risk and others concluding the opposite.

The takeaway

Overall, the takeaway is that better core stability lowers the risk of injuries to the lower extremities for athletes, so it’s important you don’t skip those core exercises in your routine. Strengthening and stabilizing your core with moves like rotating mountain climbers, planks, and russian twists could help lower your risk of injuries, and keep you off the sidelines and in the game.

Steph Green (Steph Zee) is a singer-songwriter and professional writer with over 12 years of experience in healthcare and… Read Full Bio

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