Knee injuries can affect everyone, especially athletes. They need to leap and the impact with the hard surface could accumulate pressure to their knees. Athletes shouldn’t only improve their skills; they also need to strengthen their body, because they experience significant physical pressures. As an example, they need to strengthen all muscles connected to the knees, so they become a unified structure that can better survive repeated impacts. They also need to trim excess pounds, because if you are heavier, the impact on your knees will become more severe. Athletes should work with strength coach and they need to stay abreast on various training techniques that can help to minimize the possibilities of injuries. Athletes also need to check their postures. As an example, people who have problems like scoliosis, lordosis and kyphosis will perform differently during sports sessions. Poor postures may cause us to put extra stress on our knees and this could elevate the possibilities of injuries.
One good way to prevent knee injuries is by training the core, which can be the weakest link in our body. If you want to have an excellent athletic stance, you also need to train the hips and back. Athletic stance is the knee-protecting position and you need to master it quite well. With excellent conditioning and strength program, you should be able to make yourself more resistant to significant pressures in life. It is important for you to avoid specific actions, such as full squats, too often. Climbing two stairs at a time, running downhill and allowing your hip to drop below the knees can put significant pressure to your knees. These activities shouldn’t become the part of your daily training sessions. It is also important that you able to properly land and jump. Your spine position should be straight and neutral. At any time during the training session, you should keep your chest over your knees and also knees over feet. When you land on a hard a surface, you should make sure that you land on the ball of your feet and let most of the impact to sink into your heel.
You need to perform separate jump exercises on different surfaces, such as wood floor, dirt, mats and concrete. So, you will know how to properly deal with different impacts. Train should be performed functionally, so you can prevent injurt and improve the overall performance. By being functional, it means that everything that you should have purpose, benefit and result. As an example, you need to perform light resistance exercises to start strengthening your muscles, joints and bones. The intensity of the training and the overall weight should be increased gradually, until you get the expected results. If you want to prevent knees injuries, you also need shorten your reaction times and improve the overall agility. You should learn from tennis players on how they rely on athletic stance most of the time. They tend to stay low and move only when it’s necessary. They also know how to accelerate, turn, twist and stop depending on the situation. If you can adopt the same movement style, you should be able to minimize the occurrence of knees injuries.