Hip Abduction Strength: Relationship to Trunk and Lower Extremity Motion During A Single-Leg Step-Down Task in Professional Baseball Players.
M Christopher Zipser, Hillary A Plummer, Nathan Kindstrand and 3 others
PMID 33842030WHAT IT FOUND
Hip strength barely predicted movement quality in baseball players.
Weak hip abductors were linked to slight knee valgus and pelvic drop in pitchers, but not position players. The relationships were weak, so hip strength alone does not explain these movement deficits.
Key findings
01In pitchers, decreased hip abduction torque was associated with increased knee valgus on the lead leg and increased pelvic drop on the trail leg.
02Position players showed no significant correlations between hip abduction torque and any single-leg step-down variables.
03The observed relationships were statistically significant but weak, with the authors noting clinical significance is unknown.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study only measured hip abduction strength, ignoring other muscles and motor control factors that influence movement. Throwing mechanics were not directly observed; the step-down task may not load the hips in the same way pitching does. The correlations found were weak (r=0.24 and r=-0.28), meaning hip strength explains very little of the variance in movement deficits. Subgroup analyses for position players were not performed due to small sample sizes within specific positions.
Declared interests
The research was funded by a Major League Baseball grant. The authors declared no other financial conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that strengthening hip abductors will correct knee valgus or pelvic drop in pitchers. The relationships found were weak, and the authors explicitly state that hip abductors are only one contributor to these movement deficits.