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Top 10 to Avoiding Knee Injury
 Knee injuries are very common, especially for people who play a lot of
sports. Injury can affect any of the ligaments, bursae, or tendons surrounding
the knee joint. Injury can also affect the ligaments, cartilage, menisci (plural
for meniscus), and bones forming the joint. The complexity of the design of the
knee joint and the fact that it is an active weight-bearing joint are factors in
making the knee one of the most commonly injured joints.
Women are two to eight times more likely than men to have certain kinds of
knee problems like ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears. The ACL is the
ligament (strong, elastic bands of tissue that connect bone to bone) that
stabilizes the knee. It prevents the knee from moving side to side and forward
and backward.
There are many things that can influence whether you get a knee injury or
not, but there are steps you can take to minimize the risk. Here are my ten
best bets for keeping the surgeon away:
 Make sure that your knees are aligned with your feet. By that I mean
that during a
squat, your knees should be traveling forward in the same
direction as the toes. If your toes are pointing out to the sides, but your
knees seem to be going straight forward, you know you're asking for trouble!
Imagine an invisible line to which your feet are aligned. All you have to is
keep your knees strictly in the same line.
 
 Use good form. Don't stand on your toes during the last two sets, and
whatever you do - no squirming around!
 Don't wrap your knees all the time. By always babying your knees you will
build
muscular strength, but you're not preparing your knee joint and
supporting muscles to handle an un-wrapped squat. Over time, your muscles will
get more powerful, while your knees stays the same or may even get weaker. At
some point, this will come back to haunt you in a big way, be it at the gym, a
company softball game or wherever.
 Get good shoes. Inch-thick, gel-filled or gas-pumped soles are great for
basketball, as they help absorb the impact from all the jumping. You don't see
much jumping in the gym, however, so what's a good shoe on the court is not
necessarily a good shoe everywhere. With a couple of hundred pounds on your
shoulders, you want to be sure that you're stable. Pick shoes with thin soles
and very little "bounciness". Try to get a feeling of having solid contact
with the floor.
  Check the ego at the door. Use a sensible
weight that you can do at least 6-8 strict reps
with, keeping the focus on safety and control at all times. That will bring
you the fastest results and the least risk of injury
 Develop the deep postural muscles of the pelvis and leg, such as the inner
thighs
and hip rotators, giving equal attention to both the internal and
external hip rotators. Lift the kneecap to straighten the leg instead of
pushing the knee backward into hyperextension.
 Improve your
balance and pelvic-side muscle coordination by standing on
one leg in parallel for twenty seconds with arms crossed and eyes closed. And
never forget that hamstring strength is as important as stretch. The kneecap
rides in a specific groove of the thighbone, and if the muscles are
unbalanced, pain can begin from the kneecap grinding on the groove the wrong
way. In a worst-case scenario this tightness can pull the entire kneecap off
of the groove. If the muscle imbalance is due to lack of bony hip rotation,
the big, tendinous side strap of the thigh, the ilio-tibial band, tries to do
the work of the hip joint in rotating the leg, which then pulls the kneecap
sideways. Keep your kneecap in line with the second toe.
  Maintain a
healthy
weight to reduce
stress
on your knees. Staying
slim reduces the forces placed on the knee during both athletics and
everyday walking and may, according to some medical research, reduce
osteoarthritis. Keeping your weight down may also reduce the number of
ligament and tendon injuries for similar reasons.
 "Warm up" (stretch)
your leg muscles before and after you exercise.
Stretching keeps your knee from being too tight and aids in preventing
both patellofemoral
 syndrome and iliotibial band syndrome.
 Take it slow when starting a new exercise program. If you have
chronic knee pain, consider
swimming or water exercises.
Whatever you do, respect and listen to your body. If it hurts, change what
you are doing. When driving, knee protection may include wearing a seatbelt to
avoid the knee-versus-dashboard injuries as well as injuries to other parts of
your body.
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