ACL Reconstruction Rehab

[Wintermute]

Having surgery on my ACL in a few weeks to have it reconstructed/replaced using the Tendon Graft method and I was wondering if anyone on the Forums had gone through the procedure and could recommend any sort of excercise or training to help with the Rehab/Physio.

Not expecting to be back doing sports for a good 6 Months or so, but anything I can do to help the process along is more than welcome.

[Blarg]

Reenact the event that made you injure your ACL in the first place at full intensity.

[Wintermute]

Reenact the event that made you injure your ACL in the first place at full intensity.

Don't think I can reenact getting my foot caught on a ramp and sitting on my knee.
Nor do I want to reenact the knee twist that resulted in further damage and Cartilige tearing.

[Freight]

got vids??

[Wintermute]

got vids??

Newp. I skate alone.

You can recreate it though!

Stand on the edge of a table on your right foot so your left one is dangling over.
Then place your left foot infront of your right on its side.
Now hop off the table with your right foot, making sure your left ankle is still on the table, you want to make sure that mid fall at least half of your shin is on the table for perpendicular goodness.
Keep your back straight to ensure authentic recreation and aim to have your ass over your left knee.
Let momentum and gravity take care of the rest and try to ignore the popping and grinding sounds as your knee moves in ways you hoped it never would.
Walk home.

[Ohemgee]

Simpson's did it.

[Ziegus]

I went through ACL surgery a few years back. Basically, you'll want to do normal stretching during the first month or so on the knee. The stretch I did alot when I went through rehabilitation was just sitting while stretching it (preferably on a chair with another chair in front of you). Have whichever one is your good leg in a normal position and stretch your rehab leg onto the other chair where your foot is dangling but your foreleg is on the chair. This makes it where your knee should be in the air also (in the air is a stupid term but I'm tired and can't think, basically you don't want the underside of your knee to be on a chair). Put your hands above your knee, and bend your knee down slightly with your hands to the point where it feels weird but doesn't hurt. Do that for maybe 20 seconds or so, release, and repeat a few times. My physical therapist had me doing that about 10 times each.

Mostly the exercises they'll want you doing are stretching (the majority of it seemed to be stretching), followed by normal everyday things. After 2 months, maybe 3 depending on how you're doing, my therapist told me to start trying to do my normal routine of walking and just trying to be on it as much as possible. After 6 months you should be good to go, I almost wouldn't recommend sports until 7 but that's only if you still feel weird at that time. Hope it helps.

[Wintermute]

words

The stretching sounds similar to what I've been doing after my cartilige surgery.

My dad's had ACL surgery twice now so he probably knows the stretches involved, but I was wondering more about excercise and Rehab with contact sports in mind.

If I recall my dad was up and walking again within a couple of days, (in fact he got out of bed few hours after surgery to use the bathroom and leaked blood out of his knee everywhere) and I've been told the same by the surgeon, so I expect the differneces between your experiences and what I've seen/been told has a lot to do with changes to the post-op treatment over the years.

Only thing is my dad hasn't had any knee cartilige for 16+ years (was standard procedure to remove it back then) so he didn't really have the choice of Rehab aiming at contact sports when they did his ACL last year, so I can't really ask him.

More concerned at getting my leg/ACL back up to speed as soon as possible aiming at contact sports before I go and do something stupid.

Out of curiosity, did you use a knee brace post-op at all for excercise?

And cheers for the advice.

[Ziegus]

I would take my brace off for the exercises since it was really restrictive. But then again I had one of those hugeeeeee braces. As for exercises I can only assume it'll be a more toned up version of what I did. You'll be doing a lot of riding on stationary bicycles and weight lifting with that knee probably. It's a shame I can't remember anything else for you though. Sorry.

[Wintermute]

I would take my brace off for the exercises since it was really restrictive. But then again I had one of those hugeeeeee braces. As for exercises I can only assume it'll be a more toned up version of what I did. You'll be doing a lot of riding on stationary bicycles and weight lifting with that knee probably. It's a shame I can't remember anything else for you though. Sorry.

Yeah, I've seen my dad's old Knee Brace, "Huge" doesn't do it justice.

Got a Stationary-Bike rig at home and should have some ankle weights so should be cool then.

Cheers.

[Senji]

The best exercise rehab for it is riding a bike.

[Brill Weave]

Not expecting to be back doing sports for a good 6 Months or so

Don't freak out if it takes longer than six months to be back up to full speed there dood. You should be pretty well mobile and going pretty good by six months. But I would seriously hold off on testing it for at least eight months. Because once you get past the whole physical injury then you will deal with the mental strain of it.

[BIGSTIC]

I lost count on knee surgeries after #6. Docs pretty much say by 35 I will have 2 new knees

Stretch, Stretch, Stretch. About the only real thing I can say. I went to Physical Therapist 3 times a week after most my surgeries. In one year i had 1 knee done twice and the other done once. Pretty much my knees are just my body's week point. One thing my therapist emphasized was Water Workouts. I was at the local pool almost everyday just walking in the shallow end and slowly working up to really using it. Although I would also say only one of my surgeries was ACL the rest were due to cartilage/arthritis in my knees and my competitive swimming just punished my knees even more.

One other thing is once your can really start working out your bad knee really focus on strengthening the muscles around your knee. My therapist gave me an exercise regime that solely focused on my knee muscles and it really does help if you keep it up while you are still competing.

[Norelco]

Having surgery on my ACL in a few weeks to have it reconstructed/replaced using the Tendon Graft method and I was wondering if anyone on the Forums had gone through the procedure and could recommend any sort of excercise or training to help with the Rehab/Physio.

Not expecting to be back doing sports for a good 6 Months or so, but anything I can do to help the process along is more than welcome.

Had my ACL surgery two years ago. I've been lazy with my rehab so my right leg muscles (hammys, quads, and calves) are noticeably smaller than my left leg. Enjoy the vicodin, I know I did. And don't be one of those "tough" kids who think they won't need the pain meds. Trust me, you will.

My PT said the best think you can do is work that leg and build up as much muscle as you can BEFORE the surgery. He said basically it will cut down the amount of work you'll need to do afterwards.

Yeah, and do your stretching exercises every day, two or three times a day. It'll take awhile, but your range of motion will eventually come back. I actually cried tears of joy when I made a full rotation on an exercise bike. It took me a month or so to be able to do that. It shows you how much we really take these things for granted.

Oh, also...they're going to tell you to keep your leg elevated and ice it as much as possible. They recommended to be a device and I will too...it's basically a cooler you fill with ice and water, and it has a hose that extends from it to a pad that you wrap around your knee. It plugs into the wall and it continously pumps cold water into the pad so it keeps your knee chilled. It was complete worth the price.

I think it's called a Cryo Cuff: http://www.medwing.com/product/11A.html

http://www.hat-trick-sports.com/item--C ... uffwcooler

Good luck man.

[Caudle]

My PT said the best think you can do is work that leg and build up as much muscle as you can BEFORE the surgery. He said basically it will cut down the amount of work you'll need to do afterwards.

When i blew mine out this is what they preached to me too. I had almost as much PT before my surgery as after. My biggest problem was getting used to having to work at shit you used to not think about. Trust me, not being able to pedal a bicycle makes you feel like shit.

The PT had me do a lot of balancing on the bad knee on balance boards and doing squats and a lot of stretching. Stuff you can do at home while watching TV and shit. As for a brace i had a decently flexible one, but i played basketball a lot and was scared to death of cutting and lateral movement. I don't wear it anymore, but i did for a long time. It's a comfort thing and like one of the early posters said, there is a lot of mental shit to get over when you first start moving full speed again.

Good luck.

[Wintermute]

My PT said the best think you can do is work that leg and build up as much muscle as you can BEFORE the surgery. He said basically it will cut down the amount of work you'll need to do afterwards.

When i blew mine out this is what they preached to me too. I had almost as much PT before my surgery as after. My biggest problem was getting used to having to work at shit you used to not think about. Trust me, not being able to pedal a bicycle makes you feel like shit.

The PT had me do a lot of balancing on the bad knee on balance boards and doing squats and a lot of stretching. Stuff you can do at home while watching TV and shit. As for a brace i had a decently flexible one, but i played basketball a lot and was scared to death of cutting and lateral movement. I don't wear it anymore, but i did for a long time. It's a comfort thing and like one of the early posters said, there is a lot of mental shit to get over when you first start moving full speed again.

Good luck.

Muscle buildup before surgery isn't an option, I know it's standard but the surgeon said he wanted to fix the ACL when he did the Cartilige, or if not directly afterwards.

Means I'm going into the surgery with an atrophied left leg. It's already half the size of my right, though I might be able to work on it some between the surgery itself and when he gives me the all clear on the cartilige recovery depending on the time period.

Not too worried about the menatal stuff. Only sport I do is skateboard (if you can call it a sport) and a large part of it is mental. It also makes you stubborn as a mule.
Not saying I'm going to fly through it, but I'll stick with it.

Plus my dad's been through it a few times, he'll be more than happy to give me the kick I need if I start to slack.

Cheers again for the posts, good to know what I'll be looking into in the near future.

[Vertabreaker]

I'm still in the process of rehabing my knee, this is my 3rd knee surgery(all from snowboarding). This time around I had my ACL, PCL, and most of my meniscus repaired.

Basically(for me anyway) my quad and hamstring were nonexistent after the first 4 weeks after the surgery because I was in a brace for a total of 8 weeks, but I took the brace off for rehab which started 4 -5 weeks after the procedure. Other then that I had to be in a brace.

They'll start you out in rehab with light stretching using your own body weight and gravity as well as alastic bands. They'll probably do some ultrasounds on it to break up scar tissue and get it lose before you begin. You'll do a lot of balancing and strength training. Your ortho will be giving your PT reports and vise versa to make sure you're doing the right amount of rehab in the given time frame, but it's going to take time. The important thing is to not rush it and let your knee get as strong as possible before you start to be as active as you were before hand.

If you rush it you'll end up like me getting worked on again lol.

[Wintermute]

I'm still in the process of rehabing my knee, this is my 3rd knee surgery(all from snowboarding). This time around I had my ACL, PCL, and most of my meniscus repaired.

Jesus Christ, that's like a brand new knee isn't it?

If you rush it you'll end up like me getting worked on again lol.

Yeah, only thing I'm worried about, happened to my dad too.

Ironically, once the ACL is done my dad and I will have had identical Knee Surgery OPs, only on opposite knees.

[Vertabreaker]

I'm still in the process of rehabing my knee, this is my 3rd knee surgery(all from snowboarding). This time around I had my ACL, PCL, and most of my meniscus repaired.

Jesus Christ, that's like a brand new knee isn't it?

If you rush it you'll end up like me getting worked on again lol.

Yeah, only thing I'm worried about, happened to my dad too.

Ironically, once the ACL is done my dad and I will have had identical Knee Surgery OPs, only on opposite knees.

Well I was actually kind of lucky with my surgeries. I never had a full tear except with the ACL and the meniscus. The first surgery I had my meniscus reconstructed/grafted because I tore it almost completely in 1/2. Second was ACL and the third was what I mentioned above. It was pretty gnarly, my knee was bowing out to the side about 2 inches too much. I looked like a cowboy walking hahaha.

But this is actually the first time(I've had 3 knee and 2 elbow surgeries from snowboarding) that I'm doing the full amount of rehab that is requried and even though it's still weak, I can notice a HUGE difference in stability and how it feels in general.

After ACL surgery though they're really going to focus on getting your hamstring and your quad muscle stronger and more flexible. It really does make a world of a difference.

I was doing just basic stretches like laying on my back with my butt against the wall. Use your other foot under your bad leg and lower it little by little. Elastic band stretches, etc. These kind of excersises for me were going on for like 1 - 1 1/2 weeks before i really started touching the weights.

They'll probably put you on an eliptical machine to warm your leg up. You'll eventually get back to seated leg curls, light leg presses, balance excersies like walking on 1/2 spheres, etc.

It really is a process but it's all worth it to take your time and get it back to normal.