ACL/Knee Injuries: Sign of weakness, Random, or Inevitable?

[rememberscott]

The dreaded pain that seemingly anyone can go through in our sport. It could be your first day on the slopes or after years and years of skiing. Some may have nagging knee issues forever others might never even tweak a knee. So it has me wondering are knee injuries a sign of weakness, random, or inevitable? What's your opinion?

 

[epapageorges]

It means you were stuntin hard as fuck!

 

[Ian_Fitz]

Id say random... I will say knee injures are definite one of the hardest injures to recover from!

 

[epapageorges]

But for real tho I think it's just random shitty luck, some people tear their ACL simply walking around and planting their foot weird. Plus it's one of the weaker ligaments in our bodies... That being said don't tear your ACL.. It fuckin sucks

 

[Rparr]

I got a baker's cyst from tweaking an octograb too hard. Knee injuries can be pretty random.

 

[Microcosm]

Haven't torn anything but anytime I feel close to really fckin something up (including injuries that I've felt for a few weeks forward) it ends up being pretty randomly. Flyin through powder at MRG a few years ago, randomly got caught up. Twisted in the moguls in PA last year, randomly got caught up. Just happens.

Plenty of other falls have left me sayin wow I'm fine siiiiick!

I do believe that strength (leg, core, back muscles) and stretching can go a ways towards preventing injury.

 

[aflightlessbird]

I ve torn my acl and both sides of my muniscus on my right knee. It wont necessarily hurt but you will know something is wrong plus your knee will give out. Worst feeling ever. I made a full recovery. Back to shredding hard and sending it! ... Untill i tweaked my knee recently twisting out of a crash. On a fuking 180 of all things! Now here i sit waiting for an mri. Dont twist outta crashes. Bike a shit ton. Seriously. Its the best low impact knee strengthening. Take it easy when you notice something is wrong. And if you do blow something take your Physical therapy seriously. Its the only chance you have to return to sending it. Do everything they say and more. Ask them to treat you like an athlete. ABOVE ALL ELSE! ... Never give up. Bless.

 

[Download-My-Apps]

There are a lot of factors that contribute to knee and ACL injuries. We can look at factors in the body (intrinsic) or factors outside of the body (extrinsic), which can be subdivided into modifiable factors and non-modifiable factors. In some cases the injury itself is unpreventable- caused by a seemingly random act while in other situations the injury is caused by a factor that could very easily be prevented.

I'm going to keep this simple by just making a list of the causes of injury. But if you want me to clarify any of this let me know.

Intrinsic Non- Modifiable Factors

- Previous knee injury.

- Gender.

-Hormones (menstrual cycle).

- Anatomical build.

Intrinsic Modifiable Factors

- Skill level/ skiing mechanics.

- Psychological state of mind.

- Physical fitness or muscular activation of the muscles that prevent knee injuries.

Extrinsic Non- modifiable

- Environment.

- snow

-weather.

Extrinsic Modifiable

- Ski run design or park features,

- Ski equipment.

I am specifically interested in the muscular activation patterns in ACL injury prevention. When you watch skiers jump or turn, you can make a pretty good guess to who might tear their ACL. They can be easily re-trained through mechanical corrections or given corrective exercises to teach them the proper muscular activation patterns.

 

[90053]

There are a lot of factors that contribute to knee and ACL injuries.

^this

acl injuries are just a part of skiing but its definitely worth minimising the risk by doing some solid strengthening work and not fucking with your dins if you don't know what you're doing.

 

[ChrisHarper]

I am specifically interested in the muscular activation patterns in ACL injury prevention. When you watch skiers jump or turn, you can make a pretty good guess to who might tear their ACL. They can be easily re-trained through mechanical corrections or given corrective exercises to teach them the proper muscular activation patterns.

I am confused with what you mean about guessing at-risk skiers for jumping. Sure it's obvious watching someone make turns with bad form in the backseat all the way down the hill, but unless a skier has consistently backseat/sketch landings then I'd say chances of injury are fairly random.

Also, what corrective exercises would you recommend for muscular activation?

 

[Peter.]

most of the time it is completely random, with a ton of other factors being mixed in. the fall that wallisch had to tear his might not tear someone else's ACL, etc etc. everyone is different with what will tear theirs. working the muscles around the knee (Quads, Hammy, Calves, Glutes) can only help with preventing knee injury, so do some squats every now and then

 

[Jabrony]

sorry hp123 all that cum you've been swallowing isn't gonna help your knees. might want to try glucosamine. I'm super stoked for your next edit

 

[rememberscott]

sorry hp123 all that cum you've been swallowing isn't gonna help your knees. might want to try glucosamine. I'm super stoked for your next edit

it seems you have homophobic ideas flooding your brain? Sorry to inform you I'm not interested in men.. This is a thread about ACL/knee injuries. If you don't want to share information about your meniscus tear then you might have a better time hitting the gay bars. Goodluck

 

[Download-My-Apps]

I am confused with what you mean about guessing at-risk skiers for jumping. Sure it's obvious watching someone make turns with bad form in the backseat all the way down the hill, but unless a skier has consistently backseat/sketch landings then I'd say chances of injury are fairly random.

Also, what corrective exercises would you recommend for muscular activation?

I guess that depends on the level of skier. Chances are a high level park skier has fairly good mechanics, so in their case the injury can be seen as 'random' and is simply caused by the skier's error (Overshoots jump, undershoots jump or over rotates or under roates). At their level they may still have mechanical errors that contribute to injury. This could be caused by compensation because of a repetitive movement in skiing or just a bad fundamental habit that has never been addressed.

The ACL screening is probably most effective on skiers who are in the semi-competitive stages, so those who are displaying either mechanical or biological risk factors can be corrected and avoid an early injury. Its one thing to tear your ACL doing double cork 14 on an 80ft jump, at that stage you are taking a known risk. But many (particularly teenage female skiers) sustain ACL injuries on small features, doing simple tricks, need to be addressed.

If we look at landing mechanics (assuming its a 10ft jump and the speed has been consistent all day). If you see a skier who consistently lands either: backseat, with a stiff knee, with the knees collapsing inwards, knees collapsing outward or with excessive forward bending of the knees they are displaying the mechanical risks factors to ACL injury.

Obviously, the easiest fix is coaching the skier to land safely. But often the skier doesn't have the motor control to do so, so thats where the corrective exercises come in. The exercises are situation dependent, but in general you want to activate the glutes, hamstrings, and medial quads. How you set up the exercises is totally athlete dependent but..

Basic exercises that target them could be:

- Hinge hips (intro to dead lift).

- Clam Shells.

- Half kneeling stabilization.

- Crab walks.

- Intro to squats or full squats.

I am in the works of making a website on this, where I am putting info on the mechanical causes of ACL injuries, Ski specific injury causes, and exercise prevention. (Videos will be provided).

I'll post it up when its done in a few weeks

 

[ChrisHarper]

^Word. Thanks for the reply.

 

[epapageorges]

I guess that depends on the level of skier. Chances are a high level park skier has fairly good mechanics, so in their case the injury can be seen as 'random' and is simply caused by the skier's error (Overshoots jump, undershoots jump or over rotates or under roates). At their level they may still have mechanical errors that contribute to injury. This could be caused by compensation because of a repetitive movement in skiing or just a bad fundamental habit that has never been addressed.

The ACL screening is probably most effective on skiers who are in the semi-competitive stages, so those who are displaying either mechanical or biological risk factors can be corrected and avoid an early injury. Its one thing to tear your ACL doing double cork 14 on an 80ft jump, at that stage you are taking a known risk. But many (particularly teenage female skiers) sustain ACL injuries on small features, doing simple tricks, need to be addressed.

If we look at landing mechanics (assuming its a 10ft jump and the speed has been consistent all day). If you see a skier who consistently lands either: backseat, with a stiff knee, with the knees collapsing inwards, knees collapsing outward or with excessive forward bending of the knees they are displaying the mechanical risks factors to ACL injury.

Obviously, the easiest fix is coaching the skier to land safely. But often the skier doesn't have the motor control to do so, so thats where the corrective exercises come in. The exercises are situation dependent, but in general you want to activate the glutes, hamstrings, and medial quads. How you set up the exercises is totally athlete dependent but..

Basic exercises that target them could be:

- Hinge hips (intro to dead lift).

- Clam Shells.

- Half kneeling stabilization.

- Crab walks.

- Intro to squats or full squats.

I am in the works of making a website on this, where I am putting info on the mechanical causes of ACL injuries, Ski specific injury causes, and exercise prevention. (Videos will be provided).

I'll post it up when its done in a few weeks

That sounds awesome! I would be stoked to check it out when it's finished!

 

[Download-My-Apps]

That sounds awesome! I would be stoked to check it out when it's finished!

Here it is, still a work in progress but hopefully it helps!
http://www.ski-knee.com/

 

[epapageorges]

Here it is, still a work in progress but hopefully it helps!
http://www.ski-knee.com/

That's awesome! Thanks!

 

[JakeBarrett]

It aint if, its when

 

[Rosbif]

It obviously depends on so many factors, I just tweaked my MCL last week and it's the first knee injury I've had in 18 seasons of full time skiing. If you continually push yourself hard, I'd say it's somewhat inevitable, but if you ski within yourself, and are well conditioned you could be fine.

I'm hoping my MCL rehabs well, I really don't want to be one of those guys with a 'bad knee'. One thing I am going to change is making sure I am warmed up properly before pushing it, I did my knee really early in the day and I am sure being cold was a factor.

 

[VANULAR]

It definitely happens to everyone eventually.. I've done 3

 

[pat_fenis]

There's almost nothing worse than a serious knee injury. I blew my knee out and completely severed my hammy playing basketball about 8 years ago. Couldn't walk for like half a year. I still have some days now where I can feel how weak that knee is. Plus, there's the psychological factor. It haunts you in everything that you do, and can make a non-serious fall scare the shit our of you.

 

[Ian_Fitz]

I think I damaged my acl cus I passed out a couple days later after breaking my neck(long story) and landed on my knee really hard... It stilll hurts and that was 6 weeks ago. Thats the least of my problems rn lol but maybe I should get it checked out

 

[skiguy04]

yea might take half a year - currently been healing my acl since beginning of march

 

[rememberscott]

I guess that depends on the level of skier. Chances are a high level park skier has fairly good mechanics, so in their case the injury can be seen as 'random' and is simply caused by the skier's error (Overshoots jump, undershoots jump or over rotates or under roates). At their level they may still have mechanical errors that contribute to injury. This could be caused by compensation because of a repetitive movement in skiing or just a bad fundamental habit that has never been addressed.

The ACL screening is probably most effective on skiers who are in the semi-competitive stages, so those who are displaying either mechanical or biological risk factors can be corrected and avoid an early injury. Its one thing to tear your ACL doing double cork 14 on an 80ft jump, at that stage you are taking a known risk. But many (particularly teenage female skiers) sustain ACL injuries on small features, doing simple tricks, need to be addressed.

If we look at landing mechanics (assuming its a 10ft jump and the speed has been consistent all day). If you see a skier who consistently lands either: backseat, with a stiff knee, with the knees collapsing inwards, knees collapsing outward or with excessive forward bending of the knees they are displaying the mechanical risks factors to ACL injury.

Obviously, the easiest fix is coaching the skier to land safely. But often the skier doesn't have the motor control to do so, so thats where the corrective exercises come in. The exercises are situation dependent, but in general you want to activate the glutes, hamstrings, and medial quads. How you set up the exercises is totally athlete dependent but..

Basic exercises that target them could be:

- Hinge hips (intro to dead lift).

- Clam Shells.

- Half kneeling stabilization.

- Crab walks.

- Intro to squats or full squats.

I am in the works of making a website on this, where I am putting info on the mechanical causes of ACL injuries, Ski specific injury causes, and exercise prevention. (Videos will be provided).

I'll post it up when its done in a few weeks

Sick man want to check it out when finished