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Can you prevent a knee injury?

Greg Roskovensky • Feb 20, 2015

Excuse the blurriness..but your knees shouldn’t come together when you jump or land!

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s not say we didn’t see this before.  Also,  GROSS

 

It’s been predicted that upwards of 70% of all Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injuries are NON-CONTACT injuries.  As a man who has had a non-contact ACL injury and repair, it is no walk in the park.  You’re looking at surgery and 6+ months of rehab to get back on the field but really 12-18 months before being “normal” again.  Last year, I was a subject in a study looking at quad strength in people who have had ACL repairs.  The results show that nearly 14 years later, my ACL repaired leg is about 15% weaker than the opposite leg.  This is also with mostly consistent training over the past 10 years.

I have some good news and I have some bad news.  But since I’m a happy person let’s start off with the bad news and end on a good note.

Bad news:  Some injuries can’t be prevented.  Fact:  There will always be some kind of catastrophic injury in sport.  Think of Willis McGahee in the 2001 NCAA National Championship football game.  If you’re not familiar with it and have a tough stomach, check it out.  Come back to the blog after you pick your jaw up off of the floor.

Taking a helmet to the knee, rolling your ankle sliding into third  base, diving for a pass and landing with your arms stretched out, and a blind side hit coming across center ice are all things that may not be preventable.

However, as many as 70% of ACL injuries occur in a non-contact situation.  ACL tear is also one of the most common sports injuries that require surgery among teens and professional athletes.

Now for the good news:  In a recently published meta-analysis (the granddaddy of all research) discussing ACL injury prevention training, it was determined that you CAN significantly reduce your chance of tearing your ACL.  Of all the types of exercise you can do, this study shows that using strengthening and proximal control exercises can SIGNIFICANTLY reduce the incidences of ACL injury compared to those types of exercise that don’t include this type of training.  Though this study didn’t bring men in as subjects, the results would likely carry over.  Good training can decrease your odds of sustaining an non-contact injury.

Does this matter to you?

Do you play a sport, competitively or recreationally?  Is your sport fitness?   Do you like to run around with your kids?

Heck yes it does

If you add strength training and proprioceptive training to your sporting regimen you are less likely to end up in the stands watching your team/race/event go on without you.  This basically can be summed up by saying:  get stronger, learn to jump, land, and change directions and you can significantly decrease your chances of a non-contact ACL tear.  ACL injury prevention is basically a good, solid training program that addresses weaknesses or asymmetries that you may have and programming ways of intelligently improving them.

The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) has also been shown to be a relatively good predictor of future injury in a number of different populations by identifying asymmetries, mobility deficits or weaknesses in your body’s movement system that can lead to injury down the line.  The FMS can help point out issues to address during the design and implementation of your training program.

Let us help you create a plan to address any asymmetry, mobility deficit or weakness that you may have and keep you in your game.

 

 

References:

Specific exercise effects of preventive neuromuscular training intervention on anterior cruciate ligament injury risk reduction in young females: meta-analysis and subgroup analysis

 

Why Do Females Injure Their Knees Four to Six Times More Than Men…And What Can You Do About It?

What They Don’t Tell You About Dieting

29 Mar, 2022
So far I’ve introduced a little about the “non-diet” approach , as well as the Diet Cycle , which many people find themselves stuck in when using a restrictive “diet” approach to food and health. For some of those people, the idea of eating what they love and “giving up” on diet or weight loss doesn’t seem like an option, understandably. We face a LOT of pressure, day after day, to eat “clean” and lose weight. That pressure may come from well-intentioned family, friends, and healthcare professionals who are concerned about our health (more on that later); or from fear-inducing headlines that compare sugar to poison; or from photo-shopped & face-tuned ads on Instagram of celebrities selling their flat tummy tea or shapewear. We are surrounded by Diet Culture, and are forced to engage with it- no matter if it’s coming from our loved ones, acquaintances, coworkers, or even strangers. What exactly is Diet Culture? You might have an idea just from the sound of it... Messaging that promotes diet & weight loss. Right? It’s actually more than that. Here’s a definition from Aubrey Gordon, author of “What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat”: Diet Culture: “A system of cultural beliefs and practices that equates thinness not just with health, but with moral virtue, and which advocates for weight loss at any cost. Diet culture isn’t just a matter of being on a diet, but of the social forces that make dieting (or lifestyle changes or wellness) culturally mandatory for so many of us.” The key phrases are “moral virtue” and “weight loss at any cost”. Diet culture doesn’t only convince us that weight loss is necessary (to be beautiful, to demonstrate our worth, or to be healthy); but it creates this pressure that we are MORALLY obligated to do so. In order to be perceived as good, responsible people, Diet Culture urges us to pursue weight loss at any cost- which could mean sacrificing our social life, a significant amount of money on supplements or meal replacements or programs, our emotional wellbeing, and even our physical wellbeing. Maybe diet and weight loss aren’t so healthy after all… And while this may not be everyone’s experience, we have research that demonstrates the following emotional impacts of restrictive dieting: Dieting is associated with higher anxiety levels (Kwasnicka, 2020) Dieting is associated with poorer emotional and mental quality of life (Burns etal, 2001) Dieting is linked with reduced life satisfaction (Esch and Zullig, 2013) Further, restrictive dieting has actually been found to cause weight GAIN. To be clear, weight gain is nothing to be ashamed about (bodies change!); but if the multibillion dollar diet industry is selling a diet plan for weight loss, they’re not exactly being honest about the likely outcomes. 1⁄3 to 2⁄3 regained weight within 1 year, with almost all weight regained within 5 years (1992 NIH Consensus) Most weight is gained back within 2 years and most gained back all the weight by 5 years (2013 Australian Research Council) A team of UCLA researchers reviewed 31 long term studies on the effectiveness of dieting and concluded that dieting is a consistent predictor of weight gain —up to two-thirds of the people regained more weight than they lost (Mann 2007) This quote from Weight Watchers former Finance Director sums it up pretty well:

Break the Diet Cycle with Intuitive Eating

07 Mar, 2022
Good morning! Thank you to everyone who came out to Break the Diet Cycle presentation. I hope you’re starting today feeling curious about Intuitive Eating and eager to rediscover your favorite foods in a fresh, positive way. I attached the PDFs of the presentation for you to reference, as well as the “HAES (Health at Every Size) Manifesto”, by Dr. Lindo Bacon, author of Health at Every Size. This provides a snapshot of the science behind the weight neutral approach, Health at Every Size, which Intuitive Eating is aligned with. For those of you who couldn’t attend, you may be wondering- what exactly is Intuitive Eating? As I mentioned in an earlier newsletter, Intuitive Eating is a non-diet approach to food and health. The framework consists of 10 principles to help you examine and reevaluate your beliefs & attitudes about your body, your food, physical activity, health, and more. While practicing Intuitive Eating, individuals relearn how to eat in accordance to their natural hunger and fullness cues; food cravings; energy needs, and so on. They begin to trust their body to tell them when to eat, what to eat, and how much to eat. The Ten Principles of Intuitive Eating are: 1. Reject the Diet Mentality 2. Honor Your Hunger 3. Make Peace with Food 4. Challenge the Food Police 5. Feel Your Fullness 6. Discover the Satisfaction actor 7. Cope with Your Feelings without Using Food 8. Respect Your Body 9. Exercise to Feel the Difference 10. Honor Your Health with Gentle Nutrition Intuitive Eating may seem like a straightforward concept, but in a culture that heavily promotes dieting and weight loss as a path to health, happiness, and even moral virtue, it can be hard to break out of the Diet Cycle (seen below). Also known as the “Restrict-Binge Cycle”, this eating pattern is typically kicked off by some diet thought, like “I need to lose weight” or “I need to start eating better”.

Snack Break with Mary

25 Jan, 2022
Snack Break with Mary Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist & Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor at Advantage Strength

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Today I’m joined by Eva Solomon, Founder and CEO of Epic Races in Ann Arbor. Of course, an Epic Race looks different today than it did 8 months ago. With COVID-19, there is no opportunity to get 3,000 people together for the Ann Arbor marathon, so Eva and her staff have had to be creative. […]

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By Brian Sipotz • 03 May, 2018
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