Protecting that Knee, PART 2 - ACL Warm-Up

ACTIVE DYNAMIC WARM-UP AND INJURY PREVENTION

Too often a traditional warm-up for a soccer practice or a game is a jog around the field followed by static stretching, ball drills, and small side games. The objective being to progressively get the athletes ready for practice or game. Instead of the traditional warm-up, a progressive Active-Dynamic Warm-Up during the initial 10-20 minutes can be more beneficial for the athlete’s total development. The Active-Dynamic Warm-Up is composed of purposeful active movement that progressively readies the body for practice or competition while stressing biomotor abilities (strength and power, coordination, speed and agility, flexibility and dynamic mobility, balance and stability, and fitness) that are foundational for improved performance and injury prevention.


A concern for injury prevention might be the most persuasive reason for structuring an Active-Dynamic Warm-Up into the practice. Soccer requires starting/stopping, cutting, jumping, and other high force maneuvers that have high incidences of ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) injuries. Shockingly, several studies have found that girls have three to eight times more ACL injuries than boys depending on the sport and more than seventy percent of these injuries are non-contact related. There are numerous theories as to why this occurs including finding that female athletes tend to be quadriceps dominate and have weak hamstring muscles. Because of these imbalances, forces within the knee when decelerating from a jump or sprint were much higher in those athletes with less active hamstrings. Studies have shown that injuries were decreased significantly when female soccer players perform certain exercises and drills during their warm-up.

Next time, we will discuss the warm-up exercises you can do to get that knee warmed up and helping prevent injury.