ISSUE 10

Do you have questions about exercise or nutrition? Let grrlAthlete help you find the answer you’ve been looking for. Feel free contact us at grrl@grrlAthlete.com (or just hit reply to one of our newsletters), if we don’t have the answer, we’ll find someone who does.

Contents:

• How to Improve Performance & Reduce Injuries

• 4 Great Ways to Build Strong Legs

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How to Improve Perfromance and Reduce Injuries

While strength training is best known for its ability to increase strength and improve body composition, it is also a highly effective way to avoid injury.

Women who participate in sports have a higher risk of knee injuries than their male counterparts, especially concerning a ligament in the knee called the ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament). In this newsletter, the experts report on exercises that can strengthen the muscles that help prevent knee injuries.

The Hamstrings and Female Athletic Performance

Experts agree that female training programs need small modifications to allow women to reach their optimal performance levels and to lower the likelihood of injuries.

According to Dr. Timothy Hewett, the director of research at the Cincinnati Sports Medicine and Orthopedic center, female athletes tend to rely on their quadriceps more than their hamstrings in comparison to men, and as a result have less developed hamstrings.

The National Athletic Training Association and the National Collegiate Athletic Association say that women, on average, have a five times greater chance than men of suffering serious knee injures in soccer, volleyball and basketball.

In addition to female athletes having weaker hamstrings, women are also known to have a wider hip-to knee ratio (Q-angle) than men. This leads to “knock-knees”, another possible contributing factor to knee injuries.

Erin Perry, in the E-book “Secrets of Female Strength & Conditioning” says, “Female athletes, by virtue of their physiology are vulnerable to ACL tears. Besides the changes of maturity on the Q-angle, growth and increased training as we excel in our sport, it is suspected that hormone changes contribute to the occurrence of ACL tears in females.”

While there is no single concrete reason for all of the ACL injuries in women, injuries are more common at higher levels of play in all sports. One of the highest rates of ACL injury is in female basketball players.

Experts recommend improving proprioception (body awareness) and joint stability in those joints that are prone to injury (knees & ankles). Coaches, parents, and teammates should look at how the female athlete lands. Coaches should then help the athlete to avoid landing in a knock-knee position.

Research from Dr. Thomas Lindenfeld has shown that by strengthening the hamstrings, (and to a lesser degree the quadriceps) of female athletes, the risk of knee injuries can be lowered to a rate comparable to that of their males counterparts.

Dave Oliver, a former strength and conditioning coach for the United States women’s soccer team recommends that female “training programs include exercises like lunges and squats, which work muscle groups in concert rather than in isolation”.

According to Adam H. Naylor, Ed.D. and Dan McGovern, PT, SCS, ATC, CSCS, of Boston University Athletic Enhancement Center (BUAEC) / Sport- Rx, “Training programs should extend beyond teaching girls to land safely, because the majority of ACL tears occur during the cutting, twisting, landings, and decelerations that occur on the playing field.”

Look for two feature articles from this group on physical and mental preparation against ACL injuries.

Four Great ways to Build Strong Legs

The lunge is a fantastic exercise that builds strength and balance in the lower body. Lunges are also efficient because these movements train a lot of muscles in very little time – almost all of the muscles of the lower body.

Have A Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) design your strength training programs incorporating the lunge exercise and teach you the proper exercise technique.

Start conservatively. Do only 1 set of 8-12 repetitions if it is your first training session with that exercise. Otherwise, you will have a sore butt, hamstrings and quadriceps for the next few days! Use perfect form in every repetition.

Forward Lunge
• Start with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Step forward with the right leg and lower your body until your right thigh is parallel to the ground. Keep your torso upright.
• Pause briefly and then push off your right leg to return to the starting position.
• Perform all repetitions for one leg and then perform the same number of repetitions for the opposite leg.
• Start using only your bodyweight for this exercise. As you develop strong legs, you may choose to hold dumbbells in your hands.

Reverse Lunge
• Start with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Step backward with the left leg and rest the left toe on the ground for balance.
• Squat straight down with the right leg supporting the body weight.
• Return to the start position by contracting the muscles of the right leg.
• The muscles you will be training are known as the hip extensors and include the hamstrings and buttocks of the right leg.
• The movement is very similar to the push-off of a sprinting stride.
• Perform all repetitions for one leg and then perform the same number of repetitions for the opposite leg.
• Start using only your bodyweight for this exercise. As you develop strong legs, you may choose to hold dumbbells in your hands.

Diagonal Lunge
• Start with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Step forward and diagonally to the right with your right leg. Descend until your right thigh is parallel to the floor.
• Pause briefly and then push off your right leg to return to the starting position.
• Repeat to each side for the recommended number of repetitions.
• Start using only your bodyweight for this exercise. As you develop strong legs, you may choose to hold dumbbells in your hands

You can also perform more advanced lunges that include the medicine ball. Try performing any of the above lunges holding the medicine ball, or try this variation:

Lunge with Torso Rotation
• Hold the medicine ball overhead (with both hands) in a standing position with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Lunge forward with your right foot and lower yourself until your right thigh is parallel to the floor.
• At the same time, bring the ball down and to your left side.
• Pause at the bottom with the ball held at chest level.
• Return to the upright position and bring the ball back up over your head.
• Repeat to each side for the recommended number of repetitions.