Core Work for Runners

What core work is for

In this guide, core means the trunk and the hips together: the abdominal and back muscles that hold the spine, and the glutes and hip muscles that hold the pelvis. Hip work counts as core work.

The point is control: keeping the pelvis and spine steady while the legs drive, especially when you are tired. That is the reasoning behind core work. The studies below test it by race times and injuries, and none of them shows that a stronger core keeps your form late in a run.

What to do

Use two kinds of exercise, a few of each. Choose the ones you can do with control, and stop a set when your form slips instead of chasing a rep count.

• Anti-movement exercises resist motion instead of producing it, so they train the trunk to stay still under load: planks and side planks, dead bugs, bird dogs and Pallof presses.
• Hip and glute exercises train the other half of the job: bridges, single-leg work, side-lying leg raises and clamshells.

How much and when

Do 10 to 15 minutes after a run, a few times a week, and fold it into your strength days if you lift. Short and regular beats long and rare. Strength improves with training at least twice a week¹, and the habit is the part that fails first when life gets busy.

Keep it in every training block and give it 6 to 12 months of consistency before you judge it. The one trial below that lowered injuries ran for 24 weeks.

Does it prevent injury

Possibly, in the right form. In 325 novice runners, a physical therapist-guided hip and core program done before running for 24 weeks lowered the incidence of lower-limb injuries by about a third compared with static stretching². In a 2020 trial, a self-directed 10-minute quadriceps, hip abductor and core program done three times a week for 12 weeks did not change the rate of overuse injuries that stopped 720 first-time marathon runners from finishing (7.1% against 7.3%)³.

So if injury is your reason, have the program given to you by someone who can watch you do it, and keep it going for months. The injury prevention guide has the full set of trials.

Does it make you faster

The evidence is mixed. In a 2018 trial of 32 trained runners, 12 weeks of Pilates improved 5-km run time from 25.65 to 23.23 minutes, against 25.33 to 24.61 minutes in the control group⁴. In a 2017 trial of 35 high school cross-country runners, a 6-week pelvic and core program showed no significant difference in race times against no extra program, and both groups improved⁵.

Treat core work as a small lever. Do not expect it to be what makes you faster.

Where it fits next to heavier lifting

If you want a better running economy, heavier lifting has the stronger case. In a 2024 meta-analysis of strength programs in middle- and long-distance runners, economy improved after high-load training (80 percent of one-rep max or more) and after combined methods⁶. A minimal strength routine for a runner can be as simple as squats, single-leg step-ups and some core work, so put core work next to those lifts and not in place of them. The strength training for runners guide has the details.