ACL Injuries:  Breaking Down the Female Structure and Training

The knee joint is the largest and most unstable structure in the body.  It’s not fair but in the world of sports females have some unfair disadvantages in regards to this joint.  Anatomically here are a couple things that cause some problems:

1. Structure - Women tend to have wider hips, causing a greater angle and rotation inward at the knee.  This just sets the system up for an increased risk of problems.

2. Hormones – Estrogen cause laxity of the joints throughout the body.  While this does improve overall flexibility, joint stability can be compromised. 

Alright, so those are the things you can’t control.  Even though these things increase the risk of tearing your ACL but there are many training variables that can be addressed to reduce overall risk.  Here are a few:

1. Improve quad/hamstring strength - Women have a tendency to have more developed quads compared to hamstrings.  Think of it this way, every time you kick your leg forward you are using your quads.  If you hamstrings do not activate, your knee would dislocate and kick you in face.  Strengthen the back of the legs.

2. Improve Core/Hip Stability - Women are advantaged in some respects with increase flexibility in the spine and hips but this same laxity requires control.  By focusing on the musculature of the hips, the hips remain more stable resulting in less torque at the knee.  One muscle, the gluteus medius, is responsible for making your pelvis level when you walk or run.  By doing exercises to address this muscle you can decrease the amount of rotation at the knee, thus, reducing risk of an ACL injury. 

3. Improve ability to Jump, Land, and Turn - This training variable is CRITICAL to reducing the overall risk of ACL tears.  Women have a tendency to jump, land, and turn with relatively straight knees and back.  Women tend to land in the mid to rear foot from a jump as opposed to the “balls” of the feet.  This reduces the amount of force that can be absorbed through the feet, thus, transferring more of the force into the knee.

To find out more about reducing risk of ACL injuries check out this article http://www.myyouthsoccer.org/coaches/articles/msm_may09.pdf .

 Also, there are several training programs out there, including the PEP (Prevent Injury, Enhance Performance).  Check out http://www.aclprevent.com/index.htm