Knee / Skiing Prehab

[ctschneider]

[quote]danjo228 wrote:
ACL tears in skiing will be the result of trauma. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. Nothing you can really do about it.

Your legs should be strong from squatting and deadlifting, skiing technique will be your best bet at decreasing your chances of knee injury.[/quote]

I guess you’re right.

I finally looked up the article, and it turns out I was full of shit. Calf exercises don’t really strengthen the ACL. In fact they don’t strengthen the ligaments in your knees at all. Large calves do offer a degree of protection for your knees, just not for the reasons I thought. Here’s what Poliquin had to say about this:

I recalled that Luke [a client and Olympic skier] had wanted a calf routine because big calves prevent knee injuries in alpine skiing (they actually provide a cushion to prevent the skier’s knees from reaching too acute an angle as they jet down a mountain).

Here’s a link to the full article:

Question of Strength 16