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.
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.
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:
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.”
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