ACL Reconstruction Rehab

[Phil5011993]

Hello

I have not been on this forum for a long time. But I have decided to come back to post my rehab journey. Hopefully this will help someone in the same or similar position as me in the future.

History

• Around 2013-14. Injured knee during rugby. Rugby tackled at knee with planted leg and went to accident and emergency. Knee instantly swelled and very painful. Was given Ibuprofen, crutches and discharged. Swelling reduced and eventually got back to exercises. However very young and naive at this point in time.
• 2014-2019. Played various sports including football and handball. Right knee was unstable would give way occasional.
• Started Capoeira 2018/9. Went well at first, started to get chronic knee pain. Knee used to pop and lock. Knee eventually locked and started to swell. Had a couple of months of limping around with locking and swelling. 
• Went to see physios and got diagonised with patellar tendonitis and Osgood-schallaters disease. Went to see another physio who immediately identified over 20 problems with my leg, but would not explain them to me, so I left them after 1st session.
• Went to the doctor around 2019, got referred for MRI, ultrasound etc.
• Used a knee rehab program while I was waiting for MRI and results. My leg started to feel a lot better.
• Found out in 2019 that I had a torn meniscus and completely rupture ACL. Decided to get surgery.
• Started to do weighted exercises on the advice of a physio that I really trust. I managed to get to a double body weight squat and deadlift. About 1.5 times bench press. My body actually felt quite good.
• Finally had all of my surgery 26/06/2021
• Now the hard journey begins

Aims and Goals for now:

• Keep going to see my physio
• Daily rehab exercises
• Get my leg to full knee extension and able to straighten it

Start to walk normally without a limp

So far:

• Mentally it has been harder than I expected
• The pain side is okay, my daily pain started as a 6/10. Now more of a 1/10 to 3/10 at certain points in the day.
• I have managed to reduce my pain killers significantly
• Most of the swelling has reduced

Current Rehab Programme 

• Doing mainly typical low weight bearing exercises or no weight bearing exercise
• Wall sit is currently the most challenging exercise
• Trying to do some core work and upper body work where I can
• Hollow body, superman, dead bug, pull-ups, push-ups (one leg)

[Cam Ogle]

Hey Phil. How's the rehab going?

[Phil5011993]

1 hour ago, Cam Ogle said:

Hey Phil. How's the rehab going?

Yeah it is harder than I expected mentally. My swelling is down. I still have a bit of swelling around the knee cap.

I can weight bear and hobble around at the minute. Can not get full knee extension and that is what I am slowly working towards.

Currently doing a routine a but like this:

Bridges x 15-20

Clamshells x 15-20

Straight leg raises x 15-20

Wall sits >1 minute

Calf Raises 15-20

Ice + knee extension with heel proped up

I have been doing some pull ups as well. I tried single leg balances the other day that seems comfortable and a partial squat, basically more of a knee bend, nit as comfortable. I go to see the physio next week, so he will hopefully direct me to more weight bearing exercises.

I am going to join the gym as well to start using the stationary bike and I think the leg press will probably start to be useful as well.

[Kit_L]

Phil,

A suggestion, if I may. I am not a fan of the wall sit; its characteristics have poor carry-over to knee requirements in daily life, and it can be stressful to the knee, in my experience. Far better, in my humble opinion, is an air squat, where do you maintain good form and allow yourself to bend at the hips as well as at the knee and the ankle – and you lower yourself to a depth that you feel comfortable at, make sure your glutes are engaged by thinking about pressing your heels away from you into the floor, and simply hold that position for time.

The reason this exercise is vastly superior to the wall squat is that all the joints that need to be involved are involved, and his joint composition of self according to its optimal biomechanics – plus you have to stabilise the knees sideways as well as in flexion (this requirement is my produced if you're learning your back against the wall). There is almost no glute activation in the wall squat (it's almost all quadriceps), but as you get deeper in the air squat, which you will do in time, and you think about pressing the heels away from you in your setup position, the glutes will definitely be involved. You want that.

If you're at all worried about going too deep, just position something at the right height underneath you, like a milk crate with a pillow on top, and only go to the depth that you can hold and use the feedback from the pillow as a guide for that.

[Phil5011993]

Thanks Kit. I am starting to do partial squats. My range is very limited at 5he moment, it is more of a shallow knee bend. 

Anyway yesterday I did try something a bit harder as my weight bearing has got better on my right leg. I need to check all of this with my physio.

 

Heel slides 3x20

Leg lifts 3x20

Quad sets 3x20

Squats 3x20

Single leg balances 3x20s (using chair for limited support)

Good mornings 3x10

Pull ups 5,5,4

Wall sits 1 minute 20x3

Agreed about the wall sit to an extent Kit. I do need to move towards the squat, the squat is a lot more challenging at the moment. There is a more pain in the shallow knee bend of the squat than the wall sit. I think it is important to incorporate things that I am finding more challenging that is what my physio said. Find where I am limited and finding it more difficult and stick with those exercises. So squats are probably preferred to wall sits now for me anyway.

I was mainly using the wall sit to keep the quad engaged and active. I don't feel much else. I think my right quad has gotten a bit smaller than the left.

 

Edited August 22, 2021 by Phil5011993
Missed some info off