Everyone who is active is an athlete. You don’t have to compete at world-class or professional levels in order to suffer from many of the same common injuries that affect these renowned athletes. What advantages higher level athletes have always had is access to better sports medicine and sports performance training methods and techniques than the average athlete.

The best way to fight sports injuries is to avoid them. This article will look at three common lower extremity injuries which occur in sports and some of the less common, but most effective, training methods athletes should use to prevent them.

Whether you’re a marathoner, ultimate frisbee player, or professional volleyball player, ankle sprains are going to happen. Most foot and ankle injuries are related to incomplete healing of prior hurts. These injuries are most often caused by the athlete being unable to control their body in the frontal plane. (side to side) Whether it is a weakness in the gluteus medius which controls the hip, vastus lateralis which controls the knee, or the peroneals which control the ankle; the weakest link is the area which usually gets injured. Many times this is the ankle, especially if an injury has already occurred at the site. How do we interrupt this cycle? We hop!

Exercise- Inside & Outside Hops

3 SETS OF HOPS PER LEG

Place an agility ladder on flat ground. Take off your shoes and perform this drill barefooted (more lower leg control). Facing forward, lift up your left foot off the ground and stand on your right foot. Hop sideways through the agility ladder to the end and then on back on the same leg. Repeat on the opposite foot. Make sure to keep an upright body position with the shoulder blades pulled back, and your eyes up.

Athletes who play sports which require continuous cutting and jumping know the abuse these sports impart on the knee joint. These sports may include trail running, soccer, and certainly skiing and snowboarding. The important thing to know is that most knee injuries are not caused by a lack of absolute strength in the quadriceps (the muscles on the anterior of the leg which extend the knee) but instead by an athlete being unable to control their deceleration. Knee injuries occur when athletes can not slow themselves down or produce a rapid change of direction under control.

Exercise - Plyometric Boxes (Jump to Height)

4 SETS OF 6-8 JUMPS

Standing in front of 18 to 24” plyometric box, practice jumping up onto the box. During take off, make sure your knees and feet stay in-line with your hips and that your patella’s tracks over your toes and do not move in toward the midline. Try to land quietly on the balls of your feet while immediately driving your hips down and to the back.

How many times have we seen athletes pull up while running and grab their hamstrings? These are the three muscles on the posterior of the leg responsible for among other things, flexing the knee. Due to this overuse stress, the hamstrings are prone to tighten up in order to protect themselves. Thus, flexibility training is needed. But how to stretch properly in order to actually achieve results? Long relaxed bouts of static stretching (stretch and hold) may increase general flexibility but it does not prepare the body for activity. Research has shown that this method is often detrimental to sport when performed prior to activity!

Instead try dynamic stretching prior to training. This is a type of flexibility training where you take the muscles through an active range of motion which makes the muscle work in its’ lengthened position rather than just returning to its’ normal length.

Exercise Walking Straight Leg March, Prone Handwalks

2 SETS OF 10 YARDS EACH

Walking straight leg march- With an upright body position, keep your right leg straight and bring it up in front of you in a marching motion. Use your opposite hand to reach straight toward the knee. Alternate legs while marching. Bring your leg up in a controlled motion, do not kick it up.

Prone Handwalks- Begin in a push-up position with arms and legs straight. Keeping your elbows and knees straight, slowly walk your feet towards your hands as far as they can go. Try to keep pressing down through your heels. Once your feet are as close as they can get (with knees straight), start walking your hands out in front of you. Repeat this inchworm motion for the above distance.

By Kevin O' Donnell

Kevin O’Donnell is the director of Accel Back to Sport located within the Steadman Hawkins Sports Therapy Clinic. He has worked with hundreds of professional and amateur athletes to maximize their rehabilitation, improve their athletic performance, and reduce their risk of injury.

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