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Anterior Cruciate Ligament A.C.L.

The 5 best exercises to prevent  A.C.L. Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury

  1. Full squats. Why? because a  skier needs to have strength in the full range of motion. Most tears happen when are knees are either fully bent or almost straight. When we are squatting at the bottom position “out of the whole” or at the knee almost straight. These are the crucial positions so we must exercise there and  get strong in those positions. A big warning make sure you do a your squat well. Most people have problems that cause them to compensate and cause problems

  2. Trap Bar dead lift or trap clean pull develops spinal erector strength aka core strength

  3. Full range of motion single leg exercise like single leg squats, sigle squat to a bench, rear foot elevated split squat, step ups,

  4. 2 types of hamstring exercise  one knee based, knee curls, vale slide, physio ball and one hip based charles poliquin

  5. Hip abductors in an explosive way seated knee wide stance banded sumo walks, usually in slow way but want fast. Here is some additional info on band placement

  6. Single leg amortization landing, drop off a box, single leg snapdown, a drop single into a lunge

  7.  Split snatch, split jerk, split jerk landmine variation

A.C.L. Facts

Acl Injury rates are high

In the professionals which includes The world cup racers it is 36.7 injured per 100 and that number climbs in youth racers to according to this article'Limb symmetry index in competitive alpine ski racers: Reference values and injury risk identification according to age-related performance levels" LisaSteidl-Müller

 

The key concept from this article and others is that we have to achieve leg symmetry in the beginning of the explosive part of  of ballistic movements.

ACL prevention program

Santa Monica Program
Latest exercise review
blod flow restriction.jpg

Please download and fill this out. It will help me or any other sports medicine specialist to figure out what is your best course of treatment.

Improving outcome in Anterior Cruciate Ligament reconstruction with blood flow restriction Training

Sports Med. 2019 Nov;49(11):1787-1805. doi: 10.1007/s40279-019-01137-2.

Comparing the Effectiveness of Blood Flow Restriction and Traditional Heavy Load Resistance Training in the Post-Surgery Rehabilitation of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Patients: A UK National Health Service Randomised Controlled Trial.

Hughes L1,2, 

BACKGROUND:

They implemented a blood flow restriction resistance training intervention during an 8-week rehabilitation program for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and compare it to no blood flow with traditional weight training and amounts. Blood flow restriction is using something that looks like a blood pressure cuff with a computer controller to decrease or restricts the amount of blood that is getting to the thigh muscles. This doesn't feel good when actually doing the procedure. My understanding is that it sucks. I am waiting to try it but haven't had the chance yet. You use substantially less weight and do the same exercises.

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RESULTS: 

There was strength gains in both programs. The faster movements improved more in the blood flow restriction group. The was more improvement in functional and clinical tests also. The Y balance test which tests flexibility and balance improved in blood flow restriction group. They also had increased range of motion. Less pain and less joint swelling.

CONCLUSION:

Blood flow restriction training can make muscles stronger similar to regular weight training  with reduced in knee joint pain and pain. Therefore, blood flow restriction training is worth a shot and has few side effects a healthy population. Those with diabetes or cardiovascular risk factors may not be appropriate for blood flow restriction training. Owens Recovery systems is the system that was in use while was doing my training at the U.S Olympic Training center.

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