Sports Injures
Sage Smith
ACL Tears
Tearing your ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) can be extremely painful. An ACL tear occurs when a sudden change in direction or pivot occurs on a locked knee. The most common sport to tear ones ACL is playing soccer, in fact women's soccer has the most ACL tears each year. It is most common in women because of differences in anatomy and muscle function.
Ways To Prevent ACL Tears
Mechanics: Valgus collapse is one of the most significant risk factors for ACL tear and is frequently the actual mechanism of the injury. All athletes must be taught to squat, lunge, jump, and land without knee and ankle collapse. Their form doesn’t need to be picture perfect, but if their knees and ankles are coming in on every rep, they are at higher risk.
Strength: While quadriceps strength is seen as the gold standard indicator of how well an athlete will perform after an ACL repair, it tends to be one of the lesser focuses in prehab and prevention. The reason is simply that most young athletes overuse or over-recruit their quadriceps to do everything and are lacking proper recruitment of their glutes. The glute medius in particular is very important in preventing valgus collapse. Lacking core and hip strength are significant risk factors in ACL injuries. Working on your hamstring, gluteus maximum and hip flexors will really help to decrease your risk.