By Julian Hall
Knee injuries generally result in pain, and the following tips can help you reduce it. Specific situations may warrant a consultation with a physician or doctor.
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 a 10% increase in training schedules has been tested to be 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. These are the primary factors 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 also include quad, hamstring and calf strengthening 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 the chances for any sports injury, including knee injury. Improving flexibility of the hamstrings and quadriceps would enhance knee health. Coordination 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.
Concerns: The present and serious knee injury concerns relate to the 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 prevalent in women than in men, due to the relatively weaker anatomical structure and imbalance of a female human body compared to the male human body.
This injury is also attributed to the use of a new kind of footwear -- "Carving skis" and "stiff" ski boots. This knee injury, in particular, takes a 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 programs focusing on neuro-muscular knee control.
Source: articlecircle.com
