How Athletes Prevent ACL Injuries

How Athletes Prevent ACL Injuries

In 2015 as many as a quarter of a million people, primarily athletes, injured an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Women are especially vulnerable to these incidents. Protect yourself and avoid the potential of being sidelined for months by adding specific balance and strength exercises that help prevent ACL injuries.

What is the ACL? How does it get injured?

A ligament is a bundle of connective tissue that joins adjacent bones. Within the knee joint, the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) connect the femur (thighbone) and tibia (shinbone), crossing within the knee for stabilization.

With an ACL injury, the ligament is pushed past its limits and becomes overstretched or torn. The three basic scenarios in which this injury occurs are sudden changes of direction, knee hyperextension, and direct blows.

Women and girl athletes especially vulnerable

female athleteFor the general population, the chances of ACL injury are low: 1 in 3000 people annually, totaling between 100,000 and 250,000 cases. Those who play contact sports have a much greater risk, although only a quarter of injuries are due to contact.

This type of injury is often mentioned in the context of male professional sports, but men are actually far less likely to experience it. “Women who play contact sports injure their ACLs about seven times more often than men who play such sports,” notes Harvard Health Publications.

Although there is no catchall reason why women and adolescent girls are more vulnerable to these injuries than men, several of the most commonly accepted possibilities include:

  • Women athletes often do not bend their knees as much as men do when changing direction and when coming down from a jump.

  • Smaller ACL and narrower intercondylar notch (the groove the ACL moves through)

  • Broader pelvis

  • Slightly delayed reflexes compared to men

  • Tendency to land flat on the feet rather than on the balls.

  • Weakening of ACL strength during the menstrual cycle.

Balance and strength training to prevent ACL injuries

You can reduce your likelihood of hurting your anterior cruciate ligament and possibly ending your season with plyometric exercises. This type of exercise not only enhances balance and strength but is also a form of neuromuscular conditioning – which essentially allows your body’s muscles and ligaments to work in a more integrated, tightly orchestrated fashion.

To prevent ACL injury, it’s important for athletes – particularly teenage girls and women – to perform this basic routine 2-3 times each week: warm-up, stretching, strengthening drills, plyometric drills, agility drills, and cool-down.

Neuromuscular conditioning actually helps with injury prevention in part through better performance, allowing you to suddenly increase speed in critical game situations. These exercises “create a way to move the body at a speed faster than it can achieve on its own,” notes Bodybuilding. “By educating the brain and muscles to move faster, it chooses this faster speed to protect itself from bodily harm.”

Help for recovery

Are you suffering from an injured ACL right now? At Flexogenix, we provide options that eliminate the need for surgery and restore normal joint function. Experience the Flexogenix difference.

 

Qualify for a

† While we are in network for most major insurance carriers we have some treatment programs that are not recognized or covered by many insurance carriers.