ACL-safe martial arts?

[cloudscudding]

In the last couple of years, I have blown out both my ACLs (1. landed badly from a jump split kick, 2. lunged forward while sparring and my weight shifted badly) and had (patellar ligament) surgery to repair them. At this point, if I tear one of my ACLs again, the surgery repair will be a best-outcome day-to-day function, not good enough for

Comments

[susanofstohelit]

Tai Chi may be your only bet for not tearing your ACL again. but I only found one article comparing styles.

Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15618336
Article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1725005/pdf/v039p00029.pdf

Have you talked to your orthopedic surgeon or physical therapist? they should be able to get you better citations and info.

[cloudscudding]

Yay! I'd found the abstract (elsewhere) but not the article before.

Since my surgeon keeps thinking I already do karate, I don't think he would help. And my physical therapist wasn't familiar with martial arts really. Although I guess I could email him and ask.

Looks like, of the sample groups, Shotokan Karate would actually have the lowest rates of ligament injury, and the lowest rate of lower extremity injury. Nothing on ACLs specifically, but that does help. And anecdotal evidence backs up that Aikido has a significant number of ACL injuries too.

[susanofstohelit]

there were other articles about injuries associated with particular styles, those might be helpful later. pubmed is a great resource.

if you want a specific article, I can ask my brother to grab it from one of the medical databases he has access to.

[cloudscudding]

Other articles?

[susanofstohelit]

I got 223 hits for martial arts injuries on pubmed. I didn't see any other comparisons, but there were some about specific style/injury associations.

[susanofstohelit]

Pubmed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

[cloudscudding]

Huh. When I try that, I can see summaries and extracts, but I can't actually read the articles. Although that may just be a navigation failure, I dunno.

[susanofstohelit]

if full text is available for free, it'll say so on the page. you'll be able to open a submenu underneath that will show sources.

[cloudscudding]

Thanks--I've done Shotokan in the past (when I was a teenager). It's not the most interesting martial art out there, but it might be about my speed these days.