Preparing for ACL Reconstruction

I have watched over these forums for a long time now but have never found cause to start a thread, i thought now would be the best time to end my anti socialness and ask advice on my knee!
about a month ago i fell in the park at saas fee (2 days into a 2 week holiday,gutted). i felt a pop in my knee and was in a lot of pain, i gt skidood off the mountain and hobbled down to the in resort hospital, they gave me crutches but only on my assistance, and assured me i could ski again in 3 days. useless. after getting back to the uk i saw a dr, who told me again just to rest it and it would be fine in a week, eventually i got referred to a consultant.
On his further examination he found my ACL to be torn, aswell as my maniscus cartilage, and maybe other cartilage to boot, and my colateral ligament to be badly damaged. i had a mri scan and x ray and am waiting for my next consultation in about a week.

anyway after seeing my Physio yesterday she agreed with the doctor id have to bulk up in muscle and reduce swelling before having an operation. with ice i have reduced swelling, how ever i feel the prescribed "using your right leg drag yourself round on a office chair" to be doing very little.
how much physio did any of you guys do before operation, and what excercise would you recommend? i am tempted to just work by the rule "if it doesnt hurt, carry on". is this wise?

any help is greatly appreciated, thanks for your time
Dom

I did physical therapy twice a week for two weeks. Did exercises at home (prescribed by my PT) as well. By the end of PT I was walking normally without any limping.

I'm hesitant to "prescribe" exercises, since all injuries are different -- what worked for me may be disastrous for you. But I did a lot of stationary biking, leg presses, leg raises (on all four sides with a resistance band), leg extensions, used the electric stim machine. Basically a lot of closed-chain exercises.

I tore my ACL, lateral and medial meniscus, partially tore the MCL and had a compression fracture of my femur. Before the doc would do the ACL recon, I had to get the full range of motion back as well as strengthen the quad. ROM was back in a couple of weeks. Did leg raises (lie on back,raise leg straight up with foot flexed so quad is engaged then do the same on both sides and stomach) and quad presses (sit on floor with leg straight out with foot flexed again and press back of knee down to touch floor, works lower quad, you'll see it pop up). I did hundreds of these a day prior to surgery. I don't think you can do too much to strengthen the quad. I almost felt normal before the surgery. It is stunning how much your quad will shrivel up - calf as well. But, bounced back pretty quick after surgery. And then you'll have many good stories to share with everyone here. Good luck or should I say Cheers!

thanks a lot guys , iv started doing leg raises and quad presses when ever im not doing anything, iv also started doing light bouncing on my bad leg on the trampoline, no tricks or anything stupid, just straight up and down to tone it aswell as build muscle.so far so good and have not felt any pain during the excersises, just have to stick with it till the op now!might start doing squats etc. in a few days

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Originally Posted by dom_1080

thanks a lot guys , iv started doing leg raises and quad presses when ever im not doing anything, iv also started doing light bouncing on my bad leg on the trampoline, no tricks or anything stupid, just straight up and down to tone it aswell as build muscle.so far so good and have not felt any pain during the excersises, just have to stick with it till the op now!might start doing squats etc. in a few days

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I would recommend to keep doing what you are doing to keep it as strong as possible, BUT STAY OFF THE TRAMP. If you come down just slightly off balance or something, you could/will very well hurt the knee more.

That just does not sound like a smart thing to do to me anyway. Im 4 months post op now and can squat on my heels now!! Need more quad and calf muscle though still.

Not full squats either, wall slides so you are working the muscles but still have some stability as your back is against a wall. I did a lot for the 1.5 months before surgery, but my PT kept me STABLE for all exercises.

I agree with Buzz -- the trampoline sounds a little risky to me. Both before and after the surgery, both my doc and PT had me do closed-chain exercises only, i.e. where the foot is always in contact with something solid, like leg presses, biking, wall-sits, etc. Open-chain exercises were forbidden (e.g. leg extensions -- in lieu of leg extensions, I did terminal knee extensions standing on the ground with a resistance band -- those helped tremendously).

Got a call from my doc today on a different subject and asked him about me getting on a trampoline for shits and giggles. In summary: NO DAMN WAY!!!

He said to continue jumping up and down on my bad knee, but on the carpet or in a gym. Not even concrete or grass (lumpy lawn).


He recommended to me not to get on a tramp again period with my 2 knee surgeries and 1 ankle recon. He laughed and said I will ski a lot longer if I just keep the Tramp out of the equation.

Fine with me.

I did a lot of trampoline work like 2 months post operatively last year to help proprioception and develop smaller stabilizer musculature. I wore my brace, though, and this was post op ACL reconstruct + 2 arthroscopic infection flushes.

I found it really helped my balance, and I got a wicked knee brace tan at the same time.

At the same time, you're most likely better off listening to your doctor as every case is different.

One of my PTs had me jogging on a trampoline to help build strength and regain extension a while before my ACL recon. It was in a very controlled environment, with him timing me so I only did it in short chunks of time. I think they decided it was okay for me because my knee was actually pretty stable from an abundance of scar tissue. But I wouldn't do the tramp (or anything else really) without first getting the okay from PTs and/or the doc.

Get full range of motion back before you go in for surgery. This coming from a guy who didn't place enough emphasis on that for his two ACL reconstructions. Leg strength will come with time and exercise, but full range of motion takes a lot of energy and focus...and you'll be much happier after your surgery.