Is that a kitten covered in buds?
That's FKNAwesome.
Is that a kitten covered in buds?
That's FKNAwesome.
Yes it is. Unfortunately neither the kitten nor the buds are mine
What's up fellow ACLers? Irls checking in with his 5 month post op update. Situation improving, biked 17 miles with 1500 vert the other day, felt good to be out for that long. Continued working on strengthening the quad/glutes, squats, pistol squats, leg presses (single and double), wall sits and what not. PT has also recently introduced some hopping and jumping which felt weird, like almost fell down the first few times, but after a few gos was right back at it doing agility drills, felt like the old two a days back when I was a starting tail back for my high school football team.
Mentally doing much better these days as well, getting out almost daily for walks and rides (breathable air helps), feeling pretty solid getting around, barely need a brace anymore, just really wear it in public more as a warning for other folks to stay the heck away from me or else. Next post op doc follow up is at the 6 month mark, hoping to get cleared to maybe play some golf or do some jogging, need a little more activity and a little less beer to lose some pounds, but who wants to cut down on beer, I'm up about 8 pounds, but kind of holding steady at that for the last month or two.
Overall, things looking up, which is good, looking forward to skiing some peaks next spring ski season and going for record number of descents of Schoolmarm in a season this winter.
That's great to hear. Sounds like you're making good progress. Are you road biking or out on the trails?
Listening to the PT is a really good idea IMO, 5 months is far from out of the woods, the knee really didnt feel that good til exactly 9months post op
I've been following the PT instructions pretty much from the get go, I figure they've got this ACL reconstruction/rehab thing down by now. Knee definitely doesn't feel even close to 100%, more like 60% at this point, I did the return to running test last PT and passed 4 of the 6 tests, was completely gassed and couldn't finish all of the last two, having to do that at the PT with a mask on is torture, but progress is good. For the biking I've been biking on the dirt trails around my house, and did a ride up the service road at winter park once, nothing harder than gravel/dirt as falling is out of the question, still feels good to just be out and doing something. All I want to see is progress, and a full recovery so I can ski Wilson Peak this spring.
I doubt they'll clear golf, but jogging on level ground should be a go.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireallyliketoski
I'm 7 months out and I did my first big bike ride test a week ago:
Distance
32.72 mi
Elev Gain
3,585 ft
Time
3h 15m
Felt great until the last 3-4 miles. Still sore a week out with just a few small rides in between. It seems the last 2-3 weeks I'm starting to level out strength, so I'll up my weight again on squats etc.
Been dabbling with the MTB, I feel way better on that then I would have thought, but just know I can't dab, so it's just taking the dogs for a walk and a little pump track action.
Biked 20 miles on Sunday, only 800 vert, but still a good day in the saddle.
Had the 5 1/2 month follow up with the doctor today and it went well, he said "Ireallyliketoski, great job so far on the PT, leg muscle improving, still much work to do, but on track, you can start jogging a little now and playing some golf at the 6 month mark on 9/26, keep up the PT, focus on the pistol squats, eccentric something or other, and stay out of the gnar"
Couldn't have gone any better, most pleased at this point.
The stoke on this thread the last couple weeks has been great. Definitely keeping me motivated.
I hit the 3 month/13 week mark this Monday and had my first PT appointment since then earlier today. PT wanted to give me a preview of the return to sports/running tests, so she had me try out all 6 of them. Ended up passing all of them, which was totally unexpected but very rad. PT and I agreed that it would be best to hold off on jogging until I get some more mass back in my quad, but that backpacking, gravel biking, and super easy singletrack should be ok. I'm still pretty circumspect about pushing the knee in any way, but passing the tests and hearing her assessment of my progress was very gratifying and a huge morale boost.
Just got back from 500km of bad road peddling my ass across interior BC on forestry roads, ever thing else hurt but the knee worked flawlessly
1 yr post op
Wow!! 500,000 miles is insane!
Km = kilometer eh
ah, ha ha ha ha, pardon my english.Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ycMqFysJ0
shouldnt that be "pardon my American" and BTW if you are American no apology is necessary ... just radio for an airstrike
9 month update.
I'm doing all the jumping protocols now. Not amazing, but they are getting done. I found these two workouts to be tremendous:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaFv...IaYs5f&index=5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaFv0qNjSs0&list=PLMnHlHoq4yFSjXGYFg6Aw0Lq TvgIaYs5f&index=5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu9...index=6&t=543s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWu9MSC6WMw&list=PLMnHlHoq4yFSjXGYFg6Aw0Lq TvgIaYs5f&index=6&t=543s
I haven't finished the 6 yet in 1 go.
Could I.. sure... but I'm so sore after these and I don't want to push it too much....
so 13 months post op I havent done any PT in the gym, just blasting around the bike area on the new E bike cuz they are so much fun but in spite of > a thousand kilometers of biking since sept oneth half of it off road I can feel my knee is slightly back sliding and so its back to the gym til snow flies fer me .
I thot with a 500 kilometer bike trip and a bunch of mtn biking I would never look back but I would have to say such is not the case SO more work to do before the snow flies eh
Gotta get them one legged squats and deadlifts going! One leg box jumps up and down. I’ve been keeping after mine and it’s better now than the “good” one.Quote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
Do not repeatedly jump down on one leg from a box, especially when facing the box. #donoharmQuote:
Originally Posted by Chugachjed
Hurdle hops, on one leg or both are a better / safer exercise to train deceleration and stability.
OK, so, PT definitely pays off... duh.
Those two workouts I posted above are great, I need to keep them on a weekly rotation.
Passed my back to sport, although had a few things to work on. I was having some cramps in my calves that morning.... a bike ride, workout and hot springs session the few days prior didn't help my case.
Talked to the surgeon, who had just come back from a training camp with WC guy coming off ACL tear too. So our long talk about back to sport was great and we talked about drills and how hard to push, etc. Also saw their back to sport PA and the brace fitter.
Have the Don Joy brace and wore it my first day skiing... It doesn't bother me too much and I can ALMOST ignore it. I need to make sure my phone is in my other pocket, etc. I just skied groomers but opened it up to about 40 mph a few times. It'll be a few skis before I'm back to 60. It'll be 2-3 more days before I'm back to skiing moguls etc... especially with how thin everything is right now.
The hill was semi open weekend before last, so I gave skiing a try first time in almost 2 years and it was pretty bad to the point I figured skiing ws done for me
So I hit up the physio and he did somework/ gave me some exercises, apparently muscles in my leg were not right so the knee was protecting itself
I tried skiing again Sun/ Mon and I managed 6 easy groomer runs on each day, which all worked ok I would say the knee seems pretty stable but the muscles are kind of whack,
I couldn't stomp down into a Baron binding so a buddy had to help me pull the binding up ... more weight room stuff is required obviously
I've been following the Izzy Mandelbaum program, it's all about taking it up a notch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoJ-hM2gF9U
Cleared for re-entry to the slopes, no brace needed, will ski this Sunday, will post back update to feed the rehab stoke.
I been struggling with the PT cuz the normal stuff wasn't quite getting it but I think i found my holy grail,
Gym is shut down so get a mop pail fill it with however much weight i need and bend zee knee
skiing today the knee was taking shocks better and i can see the end of the tunnel
XXX-er, is that like a straight up squat motion or pistol squat or something else?
What are y'all doing re: brace or no-brace for activities? At my final doc appt. my doc asked me if I wanted a brace, I said no, and he said cool, and I skied yesterday without the brace and felt great, granted it was mostly groomers but my doc said if you can mentally handle no brace you'll continue to recover faster. After doing some searching seems like there's varying opinions out there, so curious what the collective here is doing and what are your docs telling you?
my surgeon ( in shape, 50+ skier biker ) also has a reconstructed ACL, he said he used a brace for his first year back but doesnt need it now so I didnt bother with the brace
the knee feels good mechanicaly/ never hurts but I think the muscles are not firing properly, the knee doesnt like shocks from bumps and so far the physio I was doing didnt acomplish the job, all the biking didnt seem to help or hinder,
so now I'm just bending at the knee going straight up and down holding on to my bar with one hand and the pail in the other, it seems to work > anything else so far and the gym is closed anyhow,
ymmv
No brace it is, I like the idea of no brace unless it's absolutely necessary, so bulky and cumbersome.
Xxxer specificity is generally king. In this case the special skill of absorbing/ landing. I’m no pt but I’d start with some step down box jumps where you jump up to a low box and land on both legs (step down from the box don’t jump down - ALWAYS). You can then progress that to a 2 leg to 1 leg box jumps where you land on your weak leg. The reason for the box is you minimize the amount of force to your landing because you are landing higher than if you landed on the ground. Your landings should always be “soft and quite”.
You can then do 1 leg box jumps jumping and landing on your weak leg (and do an equal amount on your good leg). Once you can do several sets of these with good form and comfortably, you can start doing some jumps and landings on flat ground. Two and one legged hurdle hops, do them both forward and laterally.
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Question for the gimp collective: did any of you start skiing with some degree of atrophy of the surgical leg still present? I lost a ton of mass off my surgical leg post surgery (~10 lbs of muscle, couple inches difference in circumference when compared to non-surgical leg), and there is still about an inch difference between the two legs. I'm about 7.5 months post-op at this point and feel more or less normal--I'm running 20-30 miles/wk with significant elevation gain/loss, climbing hard-ish (5.12/V7) with no pain, and doing a plyos and strength routine similar to what grskier posted on the previous page 2-3 times/wk. I saw a PT earlier this month, but he didn't have any suggestions with respect to returning to skiing. There is little to no difference in static strength between my two legs (e.g., I can do single leg squats or goblets with equal weight), though I'm still missing a bit of explosive strength in the surgical leg (e.g., triple hop distance on my non-surgical leg is about 6 m and about 5 m for my surgical leg)
Yes, I definitely started skiing before gaining back the lost muscle mass that I had built up through 30 years of skiing, climbing, mountain biking and hiking. Five years later I still don't know if I've regained all the mass, but the leg feels strong, in some ways stronger than the uninjured leg, so I don't worry about it anymore. If you really want to regain that mass you need to hit the gym hard. I hate gyms so I decided I would just ski, bike, and hike uphill as much as possible (several days a week at least) to get the leg strong. That is a very sloooooowwww way to gain mass and I'm probably too old to ever go back to what it was before the accident, but like I said it feels strong and solid no matter what I'm doing. So get out there and start ripping groomers. I was at 8 months when I started skiing, so you're right in the ballpark.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeb McHardman
YMMV but IME I took close to 2 yrs off so I gota do weight training, I did a fair mount of mtn bike/ touring but I felt myself backslidin so i went back to the gym and i should have done more weights
That's good info. I have a similar hatred of gyms and have been prioritizing building back functional strength through running, climbing, and cycling rather than strength for its own sake though lifting. Luckily the plyos and strength routine I've been doing only requires a couple of weights or heavy rocks, so I can do it at the end of a run or after climbing. I did ski today and felt better/more confident than expected. Started super mellow and slowly moved up to steeper runs and longer turns.Quote:
Originally Posted by yeahman
I've definitely felt that backsliding feeling. I was feeling really good around 6 months and started to drop certain exercises but had to add them back into my routine after I started feeling some tweakiness in the knee. You really can't get complacent with this particular rehab processQuote:
Originally Posted by XXX-er
That backsliding is normal, especially at 4-6 months. Time will heal the knee, and eventually those backslides will fade. Just don't re-injure it in the meantime. Lap the groomers, at least it's skiing. Don't ski in shitfuck conditions or flat light. You're almost there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeb McHardman
Just checking in as a recent member of the club.
Closed medial tibial plateau fracture, complete ACL tear, damage to both menisci, partial PCL sprain/tear, and "a whole lot of collateral damage".
Doctor, surgeon, and PT all remarked about how I really managed to mess up just about everything (though fortunately not quite).
Surgery is schedule for two weeks from yesterday. Shittiest part is I left a longterm career last fall to take some time for myself this winter and ski as much as I could. Guess I found that limit quicker than I expected.
About to order an ice machine for recovery, thinking of the Breg Wave that includes compression. It's more expensive than most models, but I can own one for the cost of a 3 week rental of the GameReady. Just want to do whatever it takes to get back out there next year.
A buddy ( OR nurse) lent me her cryo cuff, a unit that looks like the Breg, the small cooler with cuff that recircs the ice water but i'm not completely sure of the brand , it didnt do enough to bother trying it more than once but YMMV
I just used icepacks but the meds are the big thing at least for the 1st week, do yerself a favor and be on the meds/ laxitive post-op, we wrote about it back in this link
good luck
^ I have one. Back in the day of my 3 knee surgeries I was broke broke and a $100 knee cooler was the bee’s knees to me.
https://mycoldtherapy.com/collections/aircast
Checked out the Breg Wave and it does have some nice features over the Aircast.
Good luck!
Forgot my dad has gone through multiple knee surgeries, so I'm borrowing his Aircast. Sounds like the place I might do PT has a Gameready, so I can get the compression benefits then. Pretty strapped for cash so it's nice to save however possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by Buzzworthy
I left my job of 10+ years in the fall to take a winter for myself and ski bum while I could still enjoy it. Was working a couple days a quick to cover bills, but my whole plan pretty much blew up with my knee. Likely some skis headed to Gear Swap real soon...
Hey ACL'ers, I remember this post, my old Ireallyliketoski account got all jacked up, renamed with a 2, hacked whatever, I gave up and created my new, more efficient, Irlts moniker.
Anywho, coming back 2 years after the surgery, this year skiing has been awesome, feeling like my old self again, launching off of cliffs, skiing out of control, making bad decisions. Some folks say you should slow down, I say "everybody lives, but not everyone really lives that nice of a life" or something like that. The knee doesn't feel like it used to, weirdness around the quad graft feels funky, it makes crunchy noises and the cold makes it ache, but no pain and in full send mode!
peace