Knee Op Recovery

[JohnM]

Hola all,

Nov 2010 Torn cartilage and acl in my knee, Dec 2010 had the torn cartilage removed. March 2012 had the ACL reconstructed using a hamstring graft.

 

Thought I would check on here if anyone has had previous experience of their recovery process after having work done on their knee. I am at around 4 months recovery now so am free to do some straight line running now and I cycle everyday. Did some jogging and sprints earlier on and it brought to light how unfit I am in general even though I cycle a fair bit.

 

What exercise and procedures has anyone else taken to get back into shape?

 

Cheers.

[seren]

My husband had this, he was doing physio to strengthen his leg muscle daily, but told he shouldn't do squats or put too much weight onto his knee for around 6-9 months, also to avoid squash and badminton as the twisting action could hamper his healing. They also gave him a state of the art knee brace to wear to help align his knee in the position it needed to be.

 

He is around 3 years on and his gym routine is back to normal, though he cannot do squats to the same weight he did before, also if he walks for too long or has to kneel (in his job) he suffers the next day. Main thing was to strengthen the supporting muscle (above the kneecap) and not rush it. He used the cross trainer and slowly built up on the rowing machine.

[AlexDP]

Loads of posterior chain exercises. Think glute ham raises, reverse hypers, deadlifts, RDL's..

[IcedEarth]

I have patellofemoral disorder and had lateral release knee surgery and all of my cartilege removed. Unfortunately, it didn't fix it and my condition is permanent.

 

It's made me stop running and doing pretty much any leg exercise. Sucks, but it's just too difficult.

[Ninjainpajamas]

I've torn cartilage in both of my knees, as well as both ACL's in both knees as well a torn MCL. I've totaled about 4 surgeries by now, but one was to scrape away scar tissue. I have a cadaver for an ACL in my right knee, I forget what I got in my left. Had pretty major repairs to both in terms of cartilage.

 

I know all too well about the knee recovery process.

 

First it's important to keep and sustain range of motion, don't stop your stretches and full leg extension, and push it hard to when bending the knee. If your leg does not go straight as possible, it will impede your progress and add pains to your hips and other places as you compensate.

 

Secondly you have to trust the work that was done...I push myself very work hard in strengthening the muscles in my legs. However I don't push it with weights and such so much, I do exercises using a box, lunges, shallow squats with maybe arm weights.

 

A really good exercise is biking because it doesn't pressure the knee much, walking up an concrete incline hill and steps not so much if it hurts or is bothersome. Use isolated exercises to bring back up the muscle in the knee first, like one legged knee bends, so you can slowly target and get used to the mental block of potential pain and the realization that it doesn't feel the same. Realize a lot of it is psychological, just because it doesn't feel the same doesn't mean it isn't working right.

 

Once you balance out the strength in your legs (you'll notice one is weaker and takes more of the weight bearing still) and mental stability as well in how you walk and move, then you can start challenging yourself with more grueling exercises. Then you can start doing those rotating stairs at the gym, or a treadmill...I try to stay away from jogging and running personally because of the weight bearing on your knees is a bit rough, mine tended to get swollen and sore then I wouldn't be able to continue exercising. It's the friction from the those exercises that seem to be causing the aggravation. When you have a platform moving underneath you like in a treadmill then it's a bit less slamming on your knees plus the treadmill provides some give.

 

Once I've learned to focus energy on my quads and hamstrings and strengthening them up from doing stairs and biking then I can practice proper form and putting pressure directly on the knee through squats with light weight, just to make sure you're balancing properly, you'll really feel a difference in how you stand when you've got some added weight on you, it becomes more pronounced. I wouldn't push it far with the weights with squats, but you should definitely feel it on your cartilage and it will help you adjust to the sensation and become conditioned to it. Otherwise continue things like lunges, you can hold onto some weights for added difficulty.

 

That's a basic rundown even though since you seem to be running and jogging in a pretty good place...but you never know, everyone ends up in different places with their injuries on what they can and cannot do, and you can have setbacks.

 

I wouldn't worry so much about your fitness level, that's going to take some time to get back. Work on the strength first, get on a good eating regiment so you can lighten the load in case you gained some weight and it'll make it a lot easier.

 

Just try and stay active, swim, hike, bike but stay away from fast paced moving activities that cause you do to too much crazy stuff.

 

I've always gotten back to very physical activity, I'm the kind of guy that puts my body through too much and always pushes it hard, I'm a little bit more patient with my surgeries but I the motivation really helps as well that I want to get back into ideal shape and strength again so I don't let the little things slow me down, I just keep pushing. I've squatted up to 500 pounds before I had knee surgery, and upwards of 400 afterwards on one of them and stopped not because I couldn't go further. I'm not going to be squating like that anymore, those days are over but therapy does take a lot of time, you do have to work at it, your body loses a tremendous amount of strength and muscle after surgery, you'll have to be patient no matter how hard you push it....push it too hard and it may be one step forward but two steps back, so make sure you listen to your body and take care of it...like icing for swelling and heat. **not that I'm very great at the babying stuff to be honest**

[JohnM]

First off, thanks for all responses.

 

Loads of posterior chain exercises. Think glute ham raises, reverse hypers, deadlifts, RDL's..

 

Think I have been doing the first ones, not sure what you mean when saying a reverse hyperextend is that on a machine?

 

I have patellofemoral disorder and had lateral release knee surgery and all of my cartilege removed. Unfortunately, it didn't fix it and my condition is permanent.

 

It's made me stop running and doing pretty much any leg exercise. Sucks, but it's just too difficult.

 

Sorry to hear that, did you find a new sport you could still keep busy and compete in or exercise with?

 

First it's important to keep and sustain range of motion, don't stop your stretches and full leg extension, and push it hard to when bending the knee. If your leg does not go straight as possible, it will impede your progress and add pains to your hips and other places as you compensate.

 

A really good exercise is biking because it doesn't pressure the knee much, walking up an concrete incline hill and steps not so much if it hurts or is bothersome. Use isolated exercises to bring back up the muscle in the knee first, like one legged knee bends, so you can slowly target and get used to the mental block of potential pain and the realization that it doesn't feel the same. Realize a lot of it is psychological, just because it doesn't feel the same doesn't mean it isn't working right.

 

Once you balance out the strength in your legs (you'll notice one is weaker and takes more of the weight bearing still) and mental stability as well in how you walk and move, then you can start challenging yourself with more grueling exercises.

 

That's a basic rundown even though since you seem to be running and jogging in a pretty good place...but you never know, everyone ends up in different places with their injuries on what they can and cannot do, and you can have setbacks.

 

I wouldn't worry so much about your fitness level, that's going to take some time to get back. Work on the strength first, get on a good eating regiment so you can lighten the load in case you gained some weight and it'll make it a lot easier.

 

Just try and stay active, swim, hike, bike but stay away from fast paced moving activities that cause you do to too much crazy stuff.

 

I could straighten pretty soon after recovery and can fully lock out, the bend is all the way back but for the very last last 10 degrees its a bit behind my other leg but its all good in that department.

 

I have been keeping on with cycling on my way to and from work. I think I'll start cycling in a high resistance and maybe do some uphill to really work my legs as its getting easy.

 

With you on the compensation, its hard to tell your brain to stop protecting your leg. My left uninjured knee definitely still takes the brunt of work and gets tired first during running and cycling. Slowly breaking habits like standing with it first rather than both. Notice it most with squats, will try the weighted exercises to help point it out to me more. Need to push on with one leg dips. Have been doing thoses off a step from side and front on which challenges my ability to keep it aligned and not wobble. Real problem with its strength and straight pathway. Think its worst when tired.

 

Will be having another run this week, there was no swelling in the knee, just exhaustion in all muscles of my legs. Got knackered doing my runs in physio; embarressing haha though I know its only right for it to happen. Hopefully the running will help my fitness.

 

I've probably put on about half a stone in the last year so its nothing too terrible and I'll shift that by Jan I expect. Though 11.5 stone at 6.1 is probably about right.

 

Thanks for all your good info and advice; I'll certainly try to keep it at the forefront of my thinking. Will check back in here.

[StandingO]

Listen to Nijainpajamas.

I did not do as good a job as he describes and I have paid the price for it. The rehab is king.

[AlexDP]

 

 

Think I have been doing the first ones, not sure what you mean when saying a reverse hyperextend is that on a machine?

 

.

 

Yes, it is. Basically the idea is that you want to strengthen your posterior chain as much as possible. Glutes and hamstrings work in synergy with your ACL so they tend to take some of the pressure. Although squats have been demonstrated to be safe for people with an ACL injury, I wouldn't do them. Even if you go low enough, they substantially strengthen the quads (which put pressure on the ACL when running). I think deadlifts, glute ham raises and single leg deadlifts are probably the best things to do.