Injury prevention neuromuscular training (NMT) programs reduce the risk for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. However, variation in program characteristics limits the potential to delineate the most effective practices to optimize injury risk reduction.
To evaluate the common and effective components included in ACL NMT programs and develop an efficient, user-friendly tool to assess the quality of ACL NMT programs.
Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Study inclusion required (1) a prospective controlled trial study design, (2) an NMT intervention aimed to reduce incidence of ACL injury, (3) a comparison group, (4) ACL injury incidence, and (5) female participants. The following data were extracted: year of publication, study design, sample size and characteristics, and NMT characteristics including exercise type and number per session, volume, duration, training time, and implementer training. Analysis entailed both univariate subgroup and meta-regression techniques using random-effects models.
Eighteen studies were included in the meta-analyses, with a total of 27,231 participants, 347 sustaining an ACL injury. NMT reduced the risk for ACL injury from 1 in 54 to 1 in 111 (odds ratio [OR], 0.51; 95% CI, 0.37-0.69]). The overall mean training volume was 18.17 hours for the entire NMT (24.1 minutes per session, 2.51 times per week). Interventions targeting middle school or high school-aged athletes reduced injury risk (OR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.24-0.60) to a greater degree than did interventions for college- or professional-aged athletes (OR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.48-0.89). All interventions included some form of implementer training. Increased landing stabilization and lower body strength exercises during each session improved prophylactic benefits. A meta-regression model and simple checklist based on the aforementioned effective components (slope = -0.15, P = .0008; intercept = 0.04, P = .51) were developed to allow practitioners to evaluate the potential efficacy of their ACL NMT and optimize injury prevention effects.
Considering the aggregated evidence, we recommend that ACL NMT programs target younger athletes and use trained implementers who incorporate lower body strength exercises (ie, Nordic hamstrings, lunges, and heel-calf raises) with a specific focus on landing stabilization (jump/hop and hold) throughout their sport seasons.
Clinicians, coaches, athletes, parents, and practitioners can use the developed checklist to gain insight into the quality of their current ACL NMT practices and can use the tool to optimize programming for future ACL NMT to reduce ACL injury risk.

Athletic participation growth has resulted in increased exposures and neuromusculoskeletal (NMSK) non-contact injuries. Based on current evidence, the primary objective of this literature review is to create a preliminary evidence-based NMSK exercise guideline, addressing these intrinsic modifiable risk factors. Systematic searches were conducted September 2014 prior to data extraction utilizing CINAHL Plus (1995 to September 2014), MEDLINE (1995 to September 2014), and Academic Search Premier (1995 to September 2014). A priori defined inclusion criteria were applied and included the following: (i) full text, (ii) published in English, (iii) peer-reviewed articles addressing injury risk of non-contact lower extremity injury, (iv) identified specific exercises aimed at reducing injury risk of non-contact lower extremity injury, were the key data extraction points of interest. 3163 potential articles were identified from the initial search, 3120 excluded with reason based on the exclusion criteria. Exclusion criteria was applied in the form of an eight item list summarized in table 2, 43 articles remained after search criteria were applied. Novel to the current body of knowledge, this review identified nine intrinsic modifiable risk factors of the NMSK system that were used as a foundation to create the exercise guideline consisting of 30 exercise techniques.