Why are we all doing our Acl’s?

| by Richard Price jnr | July 17, 2008
The Anterior cruciate injury is now one of the more common and definitely one of the most serious injuries in sport today. So why is this injury becoming more frequent in the sporting world today? The answer to what causes it is simple a imbalance between the strength of the quadriceps to the hamstring, but what causes this is a more interesting and more complex one. So we know that having one muscle stronger than the other will alter the stress load on one part of the ligament of the knee to the other. The result is an imbalanced amount of weight on a ligament or ligaments resulting in a strain or tear. This is a simple mechanical principal and requires little debate! So down to the real issue what causes this where weight lifting is concerned the obvious over development of one muscle against another is a frequent cause. But what about those who do not engage in body building or strength conditioning. In my opinion we are wearing the problem. Shoes are a modern addition to human development and while they are a valuable addition they are doing more harm than we think. Shoes nowadays all have forward sloping heels, some more than others, this has the effect of placing more effort on the quadriceps and less on the hamstring. It also slightly moves our posture from perpendicular to the ground to slightly
forward tilted. This you might think may not have any effect on the non-sport playing individual but it does. Many studies relate the poor level of hamstring activation and slip related injuries in older women to their choice of footwear.
Also the gradual deterioration of posture as one gets older can be attributed to the force of gravity as a result of being in forward tilting shoes for years.
Also he fact that women in sports also have a much higher rate of Acl and knee damage to the fact that women are more inclined to wear higher heels than men.
Many companies have recognised the problems caused by this type of footwear but this biggest social problem associated with this is if I choose to wear flat shoes my friends are immediately an inch or more taller, and unfortunately in today’s society appearance is king. www.inno-v8.com - Hammerstep the hamstring squat expert check it out.

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