The ACL Injury Prevention Program at St. Elizabeth focuses on exercise and injury prevention to help athletes of all types achieve their full potential. The program is the result of a partnership between St. Elizabeth Healthcare, St. Elizabeth Physicians and OrthoCincy Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine that allows us to support student athletes, professionals and weekend warriors alike.
High School Athletes have a
1/100
chance of tearing their ACL.
Patients who have a ACL injury are
Twice
as likely to tear their other ACL.
Approximately
75%
of all ACL injuries did not result from contact.
Female athletes are
4 to 6 times
more likely to tear their ACL than their male counterparts.
The highest incidence of ACL tears occur in soccer, volleyball, football and basketball, but they are possible in all sports.
Sports that involve cutting, jumping, landing and pivoting increase the risk of ACL injury.
ACL Education
The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is located in the center of your knee. It keeps your leg bones (the tibia and femur) from sliding forward and rotating. A robust and stable knee keeps you kicking, running, twisting and cutting — all without injury. But a knee that isn’t healthy, strong or stable can give out, and an ACL tear is often the result.
ACL & The Female Athlete
Female athletes are four to six times more likely to experience an ACL injury. The cause for this phenomenon has many factors including physical, structural, and biomechanical. The ACL Injury Prevention Program, developed by the Orthopaedic Institute at St. Elizabeth, has been designed to benefit all athletes, both male and female.
What is ACL Injury Prevention?
Many ACL injuries are preventable. It takes strength training and sports training to ensure movements are completed correctly and athletes understand proper techniques. The ACL Injury Prevention Program helps ensure movements are completed accurately and athletes understand proper techniques that enable them to move more safely with less risk of injury.
Prevention for Athletes with a Prior ACL Injury
After an ACL injury, the rate of re-injury to the same ACL, or injuring the opposite knee’s ACL, is possible. One way to minimize those injuries is to continue to train and strengthen the knees. Injury prevention programs can be utilized by athletes who have experienced a prior ACL injury to continue to strengthen their knee after the initial recovery period. An ACL injury doesn’t have to be a game changer. The team of experts that make up our ACL Workout Program create a comprehensive personalized injury prevention program specific to each individual’s needs, goals and abilities.
ACL Injury Prevention Exercise Categories
Dynamic Warm-Up
This dynamic warm-up progressively increases your blood flow and warms your muscles up gradually. When completed properly, this warm-up will enhance athletic performance and help minimize the risk of soft tissue injury.
Neuromuscular Balance
Lower extremity injuries are often linked to poor balance. Our team guides you through balance exercises to improve your neuromuscular control and challenge your muscles to work together as effectively and efficiently as possible.
Jumping Training / Landing Stabilization
Understanding proper jumping and landing techniques is key to healthy knees. This training is designed to improve jumping and landing techniques. We use drills that train you to land with your kneecaps facing forward in line with your hip and feet and teach you how to let your muscles “absorb” the forces of jumping or landing.
Plyometrics
Plyometric exercises are movements performed in a quick, repetitive pattern. This training helps you develop power. Plyometrics training for the knees includes a series of jumping activities that help you build strength.
Strengthening
During the strengthening component of our program, our team works with you to improve your core and lower extremity strength to reduce the risk of ACL injuries. Core stability strengthening helps reduce the load on knee joints during athletic activity, which reduces injuries.
Meet The ACL Surgeons
Our ACL Injury Prevention Team is supported by a full team of surgeons from OrthoCincy Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine that are leaders in their field.
Their advanced expertise in ACL injuries allows St. Elizabeth to provide some of the best orthopedic surgery options in the region. Check out the doctors and surgeons that help bring this expertise to you.
