Hi everybody. Dr. Cobb back with you.
This week I want to talk about an article that I just received from one of our trainers.
A lot of people send me different research from around the world, and I’m always interested in seeing it, seeing what people are thinking, what’s being talked about.
This month, the article that I got was about ACL injuries. Now, if you don’t know what the ACL is, that’s the anterior cruciate ligament that’s in the knee. Whenever you hear about all these athletes that have knee injuries and have to have surgery and go through long rehabilitation, many times it’s the ACL that’s the problem.
Here is the article link: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/
There’s been a lot of research and a lot of talk about ACL injuries, really over the last 5 or 6 years, because we kind of had a rash of them, from professional athletes to youth athletes, and everyone’s been trying to figure out, “Hey, what’s going on?” and how do we prevent these things. Because the recovery can be long and the surgeries are expensive.
There was a study done and they looked at what was called universal neuromuscular training. Basically that’s a big long phrasing for teaching athletes how to warm up, and, more importantly, how to jump and land and move their knee appropriately.
A study, like I said, the article I received was from the American Academy of Orthopedics, and they said, we were fascinated because we thought that the exercise program would be useful, but we didn’t realize how useful it was going to be.
In fact, what they talk about is that, by teaching athletes how to move appropriately, like how to use their legs, what weird angles to avoid when you’re jumping or landing, they said they were able to see a 63% reduction in ACL injuries, simply from teaching athletes how to move.
Now, when I read a study like that, I’m like, “Yeah! That’s awesome,” because that’s what we’ve been saying for over a decade. I’m also kind of scratching my head like, “I don’t understand how that could still be in question.”
Because when you look at athleticism, generalized athleticism for a youth athlete or for a 65 year old grandmother who’s just chasing her grandchildren, athleticism is about moving well. The entire scope of the Z-Health system has always been aimed at that particular goal. Whenever we look at you, we look at your feet and your knees and your ankles, and we’re going to show you how they’re supposed to move.
First of all, we mobilize them and then we teach you how to move them and control them appropriately, so that when things happen in the real world, there’s a much decreased, a much less risk of injury.
As you go about this week, I just want to remind you that movement, exceptional movement, is the key to, not only exceptional athleticism and performance in the world, but also it’s the key to preventing injury, especially as you get older.
If you need help, if you need answers about what does good movement look like, what does it mean, how do I train it, that’s what we’re all about.
You can talk to us in the office. You can find a Z-Health trainer. Because our end goal has always been to make the world move better. I hope that you already know that about us, but if you don’t, welcome to the world of better moving.
Hope you have a fantastic week.
Let us know if we can do anything for you.
Thanks.
