👋 Hey.
Welcome to issue #43 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter. Thanks for being here.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (3.5 min read):
🦵 Reversing the injury odds in women
Women are 6x more likely than men to get an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) knee injury.
45% don’t return to play.
35% don’t return to performance (their best).
For those that do, it’s a 9+ month recovery.
There’s a few moving parts when it comes to injury.
But there’s early research that highlights a few contributors that might make women more prone to ACL and joint injuries:
- 🦴 Hip bone width (creates a harsher angle on the knee and ankle when the foot strikes the ground)
- 🩸 Oestrogen levels (high oestrogen levels can loosen joints, which might make women more prone to injury at that stage of the menstrual cycle)
- 🦵 Quad dominance (women tend to have stronger quads than glutes and hamstrings, an imbalance that can destabilise the knee during movement)
Lots of uncontrollables there… But there are a few controllable things you can do to help prevent joint injury and maximise performance:
- 🤾♀️ Technique training (jumping, landing, running, changing direction)
- 🤸♂️ Core training (a 2015 study in the Journal of Human Kinetics found core strength, mobility and stability to reduce knee and ankle injuries)
- 🏋️♀️ Exercises like squats, clams and glute bridges can teach you to switch on your glutes and hammies
- 🎯 Putting more focus on the above (plus things like strapping and massage) before ovulation when oestrogen peaks.
The good news is reversing the odds of injury doesn’t take much.
One review found 3x 10-minute sessions a week reduced knee injury by 45% and overall injury by 27%.
The Female Body Bible suggests short programs like this and this.
But I’d also include exercises from Ben Patrick’s Knee Ability Zero program (which can you also find all over his IG and YT).
If you’re active (particularly if you play sports like rugby and soccer that require change of direction), introducing some of this into your week could help keep you out there doing what you love.
🗣 Quote: Kevin Kelly on habits
Founding executive editor of Wired magazine Kevin Kelly on habits:
“Habit is far more dependable than inspiration. Make progress by making habits. Don’t focus on getting into shape. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a workout.”
📕 Psych by Judd Biasiotto
Judd Biasiotto would well and truly appear to be in the pencil club. He calls his legs "a pair of pliers in shorts".
But at 59kg he squatted 273.5kg (over 4.6x his body weight)...
Which is quite insane.
He's also a sports psychologist.
Written in the 80s, Psych is a book about the mindsets that took him from dead last to winning 4 world championships and setting 14 world records. Drug-free.
Some of it sounds way too simple to be true. And he knows it:
“You see most people are looking for complex answers to simple problems. They tend to let their minds get in the way of their progress. Accordingly, when you give them simple solutions to their problems, they tend to dismiss the answer because it sounds too simple for it to work.”
Which is also my biggest takeaway from the book.
Check it out here. It's good stuff.
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
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