ACL Recovery Day 12

The last two days have been the toughest so far in terms of the exercises and rehab. In addition to the exercises I was told to do from PT, I’m also doing a whole new plethora of exercises from the b-reddy manual. Today’s workout legit took 2.5 hours to do, and I plan on doing this faster in like 1.5 hours tomorrow morning by not resting as much in between sets.

Needless to say, I’m freaking tired. I was hoping to do two sets a day but given the volume of exercises and reps and the time it takes, it’s not feasible even though I’m pretty much sitting on my ass these days.

The biggest thing I’m working on right now is flexion, and I remember having a similar experience with my wrist injury. I can definitely force myself to get to 90 degrees flexion, but there’s a fine line between discomfort and pain. Being able to differentiate between those two feelings is what makes your recovery good vs. great.

Knee Flexion on Day 11 – Around 70 degrees flexion.

Exercises

• Quad Pumps – 3X50 – Pain on top right of knee on the contraction, but not too much (3/10).
• Wall Hang – 5 minutes – Pain definitely starts setting in the longer I “hang” on the wall, got to around 80 degrees to day so expecting to get to 90 degrees tomorrow.
• Standing Active Flexion – Still difficult to do, part of it is the lack of strength in hamstring
• Bike – 15 half-revolutions – Set seat at 12 in gym, still can’t get the full revolution. Easier on the knee on the forward pedal vs. back pedal.
• Plantar flexion/dorsiflexion  – Still some pain on the dorsiflexion
• Sitting Hamstring Stretch – Makes such a big difference when you do this exercise on a bench versus the ground since you can grab the bottom of the bench to pull yourself forward.
• Standing Hip Flexion – 4X12 – Able to get thigh parallel but still not 90 degrees flexion (expected):

• Side Lying Leg Lift – 4X12 – Did both legs and definitely fatigues the hips/abductors
• Glute Bridges – 4X12 – Not that easy to do since it requires flexion in the knees, but did as much as a I could with the flexion I have.
• Straight Leg Lift – 4X12 – Pretty easy now, should be able to blow through this exercise tomorrow.
• Heel Raise – 4X12 – Supposed to do this exercise with legs slightly bent, but it’s difficult to do this with the right leg slightly bent and still get good “push” off the ball of my right foot.
• Seated Leg Kick – 4X12 – Definitely the hardest exercise on the patella since I can feel the pain on the medial side of my patella on the kick up. Still a great exercise for building strength.
• Quarter Wall Squats – 4X12 – Also a tough exercise since I only go to 45 degrees of flexion, and tough to keep weight even on both legs since I’m favoring the good leg to push up. Also difficult to push off of the right heel due to anterior knee pain.

• Conditioning – Did 5 minutes of the elliptical going backwards, definitely pretty tough but easier than the bike since there’s not as much flexion. Will shoot for 10 minutes tomorrow.
• Proprioception – Just been practicing “walking” focusing on heel-to-toe mechanics and mimicking the good leg as much as possible. Definitely still a limp but pretty much full weight bearing at this point.