Why Are Women More Prone to ACL Injuries Than Men? Techniques for Prevention?

Here’s a message to all of you female athletes out there: if you play a sport that involves a lot of jump stops and cuts, such as basketball, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, and softball, then you are at a high risk of suffering an ACL injury. You may be reading this while thinking to yourself, “Well duh.” But the point of this blog post is to inform you that there has been a recent study that shows ACL injuries can be prevented by different landing strategies.

Despite men and women partaking in the same types of sports, women are at a higher risk of suffering a debilitating tear of the anterior crucial ligament than men. In fact, they are two to eight times more likely to do so. There are two things to blame for this misfortune: the difference in a woman’s body type and landing techniques.

Marc Norcross, an assistant professor of exercise and sport science in Oregon State University’s College of Public Health, was the lead author of two recently published online studies this week in the Journal of Athletic Training. Both studies required men and women to undergo numerous jumping exercises. Norcross and several of his colleagues observed that the women landed more often than men ‘in a way associated with elevated risk of ACL injuries.’

Here’s a better explanation. The men and women in the study often landed stiffly. Stiff landings lead to ACL injuries. However, the women were 3.6 times more likely to land in a position called “knock-kneed.” Researchers say that this is a vital factor that leads to the gender disparity in ACL tears.

“Using motion analysis, we were able to pinpoint that this inability to control the frontal-plane knee loading – basically stress on the knee from landing in a knock-kneed position – as a factor more common in women. Future research may isolate why women tend to land this way,” he added, “but it could in part be because of basic biology. Women have wider hips, making it more likely that their knees come together after jumping” (Norcross, 2013).

In addition, women are built anatomically different than men, which is a reason as to why they are more prone to the ACL injuries.

“Women have less developed thigh muscles, which make the knee more reliant on the ligaments for stability. And so, the ACL must be the central stabilizer of the knee. During high-intensity sports, the small ACL is not able to handle the added pressure it receives, causing it to tear” (Hughston Clinic, 2013)

Ultimately, the two studies call for athletic trainers to come up with different landing techniques. The goal is to incorporate them into team warm-up activities for injury prevention.

All athletes should pay attention to this study as it develops and moves forward. According to the University of Minnesota, “In the United States, 250,000 ACL injuries occur every year, with estimated costs for 15- to 24-year-old male and females athletes at $1 billion annually in the nation (not including diagnosis and rehabilitation).” Plus there is high risk of re-injuring an ACL injury after you’ve been rehabbing from the first injury for about six to 12 months. That would suck wouldn’t it? So note to all of you female athletes out there, make sure your guys are implementing proper landing techniques to you games. I know it may be hard sometimes given the speed of the game and how things happen, but you guys have athletic abilities for a reason. Take care of yourselves! Especially you PSU athletes!!