Leg press will strengthen calves

Have you been training your calves? Cardio exercises might not be enough. Isolation exercises, on the other hand, will do the trick. The leg press, for example, can help you build strength and endurance in your calves.

Adjust the seat position to where you can comfortably extend your legs without moving the machine. Place both feet on the machine, adjust the weight stack to a challenging weight, and push the platform out. Then walk your feet down so that the balls of your feet are against the platform and your heels have no contact.

With soft knees, contract your calves to raise up, pause, and then lower to full extension without locking your knees. Try 20 to 25 quick repetitions.

All knee-ligament grafts aren’t alike

Note to those who have scrambled your poor knee: Using cadaver tissue to replace that torn anterior cruciate ligament may not be the best option if you’re active.

Researchers at Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center followed, for a minimum of two years, 64 active patients younger than 40 who had had ACL reconstruction with a cadaver replacement ligament (an allograft). The allograft procedure is a common alternative to the autograft, in which the patient’s tissue is used.

They found that 23.4 percent of the patients had required a second reconstruction because of injury or graft failure or had had poor scores on a combination of orthopedic outcome tests.

In general, graft failure is estimated to occur in up to 8 percent of both types of reconstructions, says co-author Dr. Kurre Luber, an orthopedic surgery fellow at Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center in Jackson.

— Journal wire reports