As we dust off the boots and prepare to kick off another football season, Shirley Rd Chiropractic inevitably sees an increase in ankle, knee, hip and lower back injuries.

If you are reading this and you love football as much as we do, you know that ice pack’s and sore, limping legs are an all too familiar tradition.  You have no doubt dealt with a few injuries along your illustrious football career.  Young or old, male or female, professional or amateur, magic’s or tragic’s there is often an increase in injury rates due to one or more factors.  Some of these include poor neuromuscular stabilisation (effecting balance and control), poor eccentric loading of the hamstrings, weak core muscles and deficiencies in agility and plyometric patterns.

So what does this mean and is it possible to reduce the risk of injury?

The answer is YES! If you’ve ever wondered which training and game-day warm-up routine is most beneficial, injury preventing and football specific, welcome to the FIFA 11+ a complete warm-up programme.

This is a graded, progressive 3 step programme which is used by elite football clubs around the world. There is a growing body of evidence indicating that with consistent implementation of the FIFA 11+, it can lead to a 30-50% reduction in injuries [1].

An independent Canadian study on youth female football players concluded that high player adherence to the 11+ resulted in significant improvements in functional balance and reduced injury risk [2].

The popularity of FIFA 11+ programme has permeated into other codes including basketball. A randomised control study by Longo et al (2012) concluded that the FIFA 11+ warm-up programme was effective in reducing the rates of injuries in elite male basketball players [3].

So if you are reading this and would like to implement the program into your pre training and match days, get your coach on board and go to http://f-marc.com/11plus/11plus/

Remember compliance is key and the more time spent on the FIFA 11+ programme means more time on the field and less time in the clinic! Although we are always here if you need us!

Good luck, train hard and win big!