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Knee accidents account for one-fourth of all sports activities accidents. After puberty, women have an general Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) knee damage threat of 1 in 50. In school, girls are Three instances extra more likely to endure an ACL damage compared to males. So, it is rather necessary for feminine athletes to take motion now to guard their knees. Whether or not you’re a walker, a aggressive athlete or a weekend cycler, the fundamental guidelines of knee care apply. They embrace strengthening muscle groups, (specifically the hamstrings and glutes for ladies/girls) growing flexibility, utilizing correct approach, trimming extra kilos and understanding when to extend or lower exercise that places stress on the knee. This text lists 15 methods to guard the knees and the joint construction together with offering primary workouts for strengthening and stretching the physique’s largest joint and surrounding musculature.
15 Guidelines For Knee Care:
1. Prepare with a feminine particular, purposeful coaching program particularly for pivot sports activities.
2. Work with a power coach that stays abreast on coaching points distinctive to the feminine athlete, specifically, ACL damage prevention methods.
3. Shed further kilos and keep a perfect physique weight. Every further pound you carry places 4 further kilos of stress in your knee whenever you stroll.
4. Test your posture. You might have kyphosis (rounded shoulders), lordosis (swayed again), scoliosis (curvature of the backbone), flat ft, or different postural issues that may have an effect on gait and put extra stress on the knees.
5. Prepare the core, the weakest hyperlink within the physique. Additionally prepare the again and hips so as to play in an athletic stance, the knee-protecting place.
6. Put together correctly to your sport. Begin a power and conditioning program 8-10 weeks earlier than your season or a brand new exercise. Make sure that plyometrics and stability and agility coaching are part of your general program. Keep away from actions akin to full squats, the place the hips drop under the knees, downhill working and climbing stairs two at a time.
7. Discover ways to leap and land correctly. Soar straight as an arrow and land gentle as a feather, toes to heels with hips, knees and ankles flexed. Preserve a straight back-neutral backbone place. Preserve chest over knees and knees over ft. Land on the ball of your foot and sink into your heel. All the time carry out leap coaching workouts on the right floor, examples: land on mats or a wooden flooring.
8. All the time concentrate on utilizing impeccable approach whereas coaching, particularly with leap coaching.
9. Prepare functionally for improved efficiency and damage prevention. Useful which means, closed chain (ft on the ground) actions that mimic the abilities you’ll use in your sport. Most of your coaching needs to be executed off of train machines. Begin with physique weight actions after which progress to exterior gentle weight resistance workouts. As soon as kind is mastered with primary purposeful coaching workouts then progress to extra superior types of power coaching, ex. utilizing heavier weights or coaching with the Olympic lifts.
10. Enhance agility and response instances. Girls contract their muscle groups slower than women and men take longer to generate most drive. Prepare extra like tennis gamers. They keep in an athletic stance, they keep low and transfer with smaller, faster steps. Additionally they know how you can cease, minimize, twist and switch. You do not see many feminine tennis gamers tearing their ACL.
11. Strengthen the hamstrings, not simply the quadriceps. The hamstrings (again of the thigh) are normally weaker than the quads in feminine athletes. The hamstrings assist to stabilize the ACL and also can assist enhance ones vertical leap.
12. Guard in opposition to overtraining and overuse. Keep away from intensified or lengthened exercises over lengthy intervals of time which create extra friction within the joint and improve threat of damage from overuse.
13. Decrease knee stress whereas biking. Make sure that the seat of your bike is on the correct top and keep away from excessive gears.
14. Test your athletic sneakers. Worn out or improperly fitted sneakers could put knees in danger. Exterior of your exercises, keep away from sporting excessive heels regularly.
15. Search alignment assist. Orthotics, custom-made foot helps, could assist appropriate foot or leg alignment issues.
Do workouts that strengthen the knee Carry out these workouts to strengthen the muscle groups (quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes) that assist stabilize and shield the knees:
1. Single-leg, one-quarter bends: Holding onto a wall, elevate and lengthen one leg ahead, slowly decrease your self one quarter of the way in which down by bending the opposite knee. Take the hip again as if to sit down down in a chair. Maintain for 5 seconds, slowly straighten up, repeat 10 instances and swap legs.
2. Straight leg lifts: Lie on again, bend one knee with foot on flooring; slowly elevate straight leg about 12 inches off the ground, holding hips, decrease again on flooring; maintain 5 seconds, then decrease slowly; repeat 10 instances, then swap legs (add gentle ankle weights if snug, keep away from this train when you have again issues.)
3. Standing Squats: This train is confirmed to extend vertical leap and assist in making a co-contraction of the quadriceps and hamstrings. Stand with ft hip width aside. Descend right into a squat with hips transferring backward as if to sit down in a chair. Knees ought to keep consistent with the ft, no “wobbly” knees. Keep away from an extreme ahead bend, preserve chest up and look straight forward. You will need to preserve the heels on the ground and do not let the knees protrude in entrance of the toes.
4. Lunges: Get up-right, ft collectively, arms out to the perimeters. Take a cushty lunge ahead with one leg, preserve knee over the foot and behind the toes. Sit down within the lunge till knee of trailing leg nearly touches the ground. Preserve torso upright, chest up and chin up. Push off heel of lead leg to stand up and step again to beginning place after which repeat motion with the opposite leg.
5. Stability ball leg curls: This train is nice for strengthening the hamstrings. Lie flat in your again on an train mat, with arms and arm down at sides, put each heels straight on prime of a stability ball. Make sure that the steadiness ball matches your top. Carry hips off the ground till physique varieties a straight line from head to ankles. Carry out a leg curl, bringing ball into buttocks, return to beginning place after which repeat. Preserve hips up your complete time for 12-15 repetitions. Do 1-Three units.
Stretches for the Quadriceps and Hamstrings:
1. Standing quad stretch: When standing upright, attain with proper hand and pull heel of proper foot up towards buttocks. Preserve proper knee pointed straight down. Maintain for 20-30 seconds, swap legs. No bouncing.
2. Standing hamstring stretch: Stand going through a exercise bench, put the heel of 1 leg on prime of the bench. Preserve each knees smooth, (slight knee bend). Bend at hip, preserve chest up and attain with each arms to toes. Maintain for 20-30 seconds, swap legs. No bouncing.
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Source by Margaret Hofmann
