ACL Injuries and Prevention
One of the most common injuries we see in athletics is an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tear.
While there is no way to reduce risk completely, there are steps we can take to reduce risk.
First, some stats!
100,000-200,000 a year
80% of ACL injuries come from non-contact sports (baseball, soccer, basketball, etc.)
Roughly 70% of those injuries are believed to be preventable.
Most common in ages 15-45 (due to higher levels of activity)
Girls are 2-8 times higher risk.
Happens fast. 30-50 milliseconds!
More common in single sport athletes
What can we do about it?
Some aspects of prevention
SMT
Flexibility
Proprioception
Strength
Power
SMT & Flexibility.
Some contributing factors could be externally rotating feet, knees caving in (valgus), and hip internal rotation. The overactive muscles that cause this are calves (gastrocnemius), hamstrings (biceps femoris short head), adductor longus, and adductor magnus.
Foam rolling and stretching these muscles can help reduce the risk of injury (if you train with me, you're already doing that).
Proprioception.
Proprioception is a way of sensing our body's position without visual cues. It is key for improving our abilities in athletics, as well as in everyday life. If left untrained we could have a weak kinetic chain (specifically the foot/ankle complex, knees, lumbo-pelvic-hip complex {LPHC})
We can improve proprioception through core, balance, and stabilization (if you train with me, you're already doing this).
Strength & Power.
By increasing the strength and power output of our muscles, especially surrounding our knees and LPHC we greatly reduce the risk of injury. Essentially we want to ensure that the start of the muscle contraction happens fast enough to beat that 30-50msec window.
Some muscles to strengthen include the quad (vastus medialis oblique, VMO), and the hamstrings (semitendinosus and semimembrinosus).
So, start your Stability, Mobility, Strength, Endurance, and Power training. In a well-rounded program, you'll receive all of the above. If you don't know where to start, hiring a Personal Trainer can move you in the right direction. Reach out if you'd like to discuss some goals for the above work (not necessarily just for injury prevention).
-Matthew Barrett, NASM-CPT
Every Body Strength & Fitness
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