For athletes: Putting more pressure in a lesser amount of time results in knee injuries. Training should be increased gradually especially in running sports. A weekly limit of 10% increment in training schedules has been tested to comfortable on the hind limbs and it should be followed to prevent training related knee injuries. A 10% increment in load, time or mileage is beneficial, anything above it maybe detrimental to the knees.
Strengthen your Knees: A physician checks your knees in the event of a knee injury, for muscular weakness or muscle imbalance. This is primary factor to be assessed in the event of a knee injury. Muscle imbalance can be a source of pain. Knee strengthening is useful to rectify imbalances and weaknesses of the knee. The training schedule should include quads, hamstring and calf strengthening also to give optimum and strong support to the knee. This also increases the stability and reduces the chances of a knee injury.
Conditioning: Conditioning exercises to the knee include improvement of flexibility and skills. Flexibility is very important for athletes and helps in reduction of chances for any sports injury including knee injury. Improving flexibility of hamstring, quadriceps would enhance knee health. Co-ordination exercises coupled with proprioceptive training helps keeps the knees in good health and prevents knee injury. Using correct and well fitting footwear also reduces the risk of knee injury.
Kinds and Concerns: The present and serious knee injury concerns relate to anterior cruciate ligament. This kind of knee injury is mostly observed in the age group of 15 to 25 and is caused by rotating or pivotal motion in sports like football, handball, skiing or basketball. The incidence of this knee injury is more in women than in men due to relatively weaker anatomical structure and imbalance of a female human body compared to the male human body.
This injury is also attributed to use of a new kind of footwear ? ?Carving ski's? and ?stiff? ski boots. This knee injury in particular takes very long time to heal and may result in abnormal joint movements and accelerates the onset of degenerative joint diseases. This knee injury can be caused by extrinsic as well as intrinsic factors related to a particular sport or movement and internal weaknesses. The only way to avoid this knee injury is to improve knee control and by following structured training programmes focusing on neuro-muscular knee control.
