Injuries To Female Athletes

Female athletes in this country are suffering an inordinate number of knee injuries, particularly ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) injuries. In fact, studies show that female athletes are 5-7 times more likely to sustain a torn ACL than their male counterparts.

Current research agrees that women are built from a different set of blueprints than men and these physiological differences can lead to knee and ankle injuries when these differences are not recognized nor accounted for in training regimens.

As an example, Dr. Laura Losi, director of the bone health program at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. states that "A woman'spelvis is wider, which is why women's knees go into a knock-kneed position, and the feet tend to roll into a little flat footedness. 

Dr.Letha Griffin, an orthopedic surgeon in Atlanta adds, "Girls tend to run, jump, and turn with straighter legs and less bending at the knees and hips than boys. Little girls run more upright while little boys stay low to the ground."

The Sports Medicine Center in Cincinnati agrees, "Women tend to be very front dominant. They primarily use their quadriceps which means their bodies don't fully activate the muscles on the back side, specifically the hamstrings and the glutes. This imbalance of muscle use ends up putting stress on the ACL."

Our evidence-based, unconventional training at Sport Science Lab provides some answers. We start by training the feet because of the number of proprioceptors located there and because every athletic move begins with the feet.

Our foundational footwork is essentially re-training the athlete which includes proper running mechanics, i.e. Patterning proper movements, running on the balls of their feet---another inherently damaging habit female athletes must overcome is that they run flatfooted---landing softly and using their arms more and more efficiently. Most importantly, we imprint this new foundation before we hit any playing surface.

Our Ballistic Ball Workout DVD with foundational footwork...for women athletes helps prevent and even rehab knee and ankle injuries. We're taking advanced orders for this revolutionary DVD.

New Aquatic workout DVD

We just finished shooting the new Aquatic workout DVD. We used an underwater rig to get the best instructional angles of the exercises since most of the action happens underwater. It's very clear in the footage what's going on and how to do the exercises.

Just a few words about the program. Our Aquatic workouts are a unique, extremely effective training tool. They're effective because because they stimulate full range of motion in all joint positions with rotational, spiral and diagonal movement patterns using both extended & bent limbs.

It involves progressive complexity, instability, stretch, speed, difficulty, mental effort, frequency and speed of contraction and relaxation.

The Aquatic workout is excellent for nervous system training because it involves the proper alternation of muscular tension and relaxation in the phases of movement as well as high nervous system stimulation. This training eliminates non-essential muscle tension, which does not contribute to mobility or stability.

Nervous system is one of the most important components of our training methodology and this Aquatic work. Athleticism is the subconscious ability to compute and apply the correct amount of force at every moment of each movement. Athletes must have an understanding of how to program or imprint the nervous system by specific sensory and motor activity. 

And this Aquatic work allows one to do high velocity training which conditions the nervous system and helps improve and even increase athleticism!

Check out the new DVD in our shopping cart.

Welcome Aly Wagner

Aly Wagner, fresh from winning a gold medal at the Bejiing Olympics, has come to SSL to rehab and get ready for her upcoming professional soccer season. For all of Aly's fans, I'll be posting comments from her and updating her progress here regularly.

JSerra moves to 5-0

The JSerra football team that trains with Gavin @ Sport Science Lab improved to 5-o by beating Katella 35-2. Congratulationd guys!