ACL INJURY PREVENTION

Interesting Facts about Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries and Prevention

Knee ligament injuries often result in a premature end to a career in sports. Generally, a complete rupture of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) can be operational. Post op rehabilitation has been successful in allowing full recovery from this limiting injury. Some interesting facts and prevention methods can be seen below.

Risk of an ACL injury is reported to be higher among women than men. What are possible reasons for this?

• Male and female anatomies are completely different from each other. Those wide “child bearing hips” which females have is one possible factor.

Another factor is that females have biomechanical differences when performing knee movements such as pivoting, jumping and landing – activities which can lead to ACL injuries. Female’s wide pelvic bones are a contributing trend to this.

                       

• The stigma attached with females carrying out resistance activities can prevent women from receiving the best preventative methods for ACL injury. Many people are under the impression hat if women do weight training, they will become more masculine and share a similar resemblance to Popeye! However, this is not the case. Women do not produce enough testosterone to cause this. While males grow muscle mass substantially through resistance training, females tend to have more tone and definition after lifting weights.

What can be done to prevent this injury for both males and females?

Warm Up:
When participating in sporting activities, a good warm up targeting knee joints and hip flexion is vital. Including movements such as high knees, heel flicks, side skipping, lunges etc, allow the joints to warm up and muscles become more flexible, improving range of movement.

Stretching:
Stretching everyday is also a preventing factor. Stretching the main muscle groups such as quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, the back and putting particular attention to hip flexors can help prevent ACL injury. Carrying out these stretches three times a day and stretching muscles for 30 seconds to 1 minute is recommended.

                       

Resistance Training:
Resistance training is also quite important in prevention. By including walking lunges, leg curls, one leg squats, abductor and adductor raises; one can help prevent serious injury.

Agility & Plyometric Training:
Agility and plyometric training should also be included. Shuttle runs, diagonal runs, scissors jumps and one legged hops are quite beneficial in strengthening muscles and improving speed. When carrying out these exercises, ensure to spring off the balls of your feet and land on the balls of your feet in a controlled movement to help improve balance and stabilize joints.

                                          

Cool Down after Exercise:
Cool down stretching post exercise is vitally important. Paying particular attention to stretching hip flexors, glutes and lower back muscles to loosen anything tight post exercise is proven to reduce injury risk.

So my recommendation to you all is to stop believing old myths about masculine females, stretch everyday and take note of exercises which can help prevent the unfortunately common ACL injury before you might be at risk yourself!

If you have any questions or queries about prevention or rehabilitation of ACL injuries, call into the Fernhill Leisure Centre for a chat with one of our fully qualified fitness instructors. We don’t bite!! J

Stefanie Beausang

Fitness Instructor