What to Focus on to Prevent ACL Injury and Reinjury
When it comes to ACL injury prevention and re-injury prevention, there’s no shortage of important physical attributes: strength, neuromuscular control, balance, mobility, stamina, power, and the list goes on.
It’s difficult to single any attribute out as the most important. But if we had to pick just one, it would be power. What makes power so crucial? Well, it essentially subsumes the other attributes:
- You can’t be powerful without first being strong, because power is strength expressed quickly.
- You also can’t be powerful without having good control and balance.
- You can’t be powerful if you lack the range of motion (mobility) necessary to generate high forces.
- You can’t be powerful repeatedly if you lack stamina.
So how do you develop power? In the big picture, through exercises that are high force, high velocity, or both. But not every athlete is prepared for those sorts of exercises from Day 1.
With ACL CARE Pro, we guide athletes through a 14-week power training progression, beginning with lower intensity exercises like the one depicted in the video below.
Because line jumps are low amplitude, they’re a solid entry point to power training. With this particular drill, we include a light resistance band around the ankles to reinforce lateral hip engagement and knee control. We include both linear (forward and backward) and lateral (side to side) jumps to prepare athletes for future higher intensity multiplanar movements. If you'd like to purchase resistance bands to complete this exercise, try these Fit Simplify Resistance Loop exercise bands, available on Amazon.
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