Sebastian Brosche · 15 min · 898 words
Previously titled: Video 3 - Post-Op ACL Rehab Program
Hi everyone, welcome back. This is day three of our post-operative ACL rehab plan. Now, it should at this point be about four weeks since the operation at least, and we're going to start doing a few more exercises, putting a little bit more range through that knee joint. Okay, so for equipment, I'm going to need my towel and my belt.
I'm also going to have my thera-band and I've got a thick book or a small step. Okay, I'm going to need a chair as well. So we're going to start out just with the belt and we're going to start with a quadriceps stretch. Wrap the belt around the ankle, lying onto my side and the idea is I'm going to take the ankle back as far as it's comfortable and then push the hip forward.
Okay, now I'm really not going to force this, okay, but it's just as much as anything else, it's supporting the ankle, it's just encouraging the leg in that direction. Just going to hold that stretch. I can just move the leg a little bit, coax it a little bit further perhaps, and then put the stretch back on. And rest there.
I'm going to grab the towel, I'm going to go back into the stretch that we've been doing since day one. Hook the belt around the foot, I'm going to encourage the knee into extension. So hopefully that's pretty much back to normal now, that's what we want to see. Stretching the foot back.
So this is mostly a calf stretch at this point. I'm just going to relax the tension on the foot and lean forward to turn it into a hamstring stretch. Again, making sure I keep the back as straight as I can. And one more time, pull back on the foot.
And then relax on the foot and lean forward. And rest there. For this next exercise, I'm going to use my book or my small step. Now I'm looking for something which is no more than about three inches at this stage.
So a stack of magazines works quite well because you can add to it as your strength improves and if you want to increase the height. So here, I'm going to lift up with the leg that's on the step and lower down. Again, I'm working those quadriceps muscles mostly. Some hamstring and glute work as well.
Straightening the leg and then I want to control the lower down. I've done that. I'm going to grab my chair and we're going to do chair squats. So I'm just going to lower down, stand up.
A little bit more movement than we were using with the ball squats in day two, but still quite controlled. And coming back to our step. Another set. It's really important when I'm doing this, that it's the right leg, it's the involved leg, that's the one that's on the step and that's the one that's doing all the work.
I'm resisting the temptation to push from my left leg. Back to the seat. From there. Grab our band again.
I'm just going to band around the knees. So it's going to go just below my knee caps. And we're going to do side steps. Step out to the side and then step in.
This is a great exercise for the hip muscles. They're really important for controlling the knee and preventing recurring problems with the knee or the ACL. And rest there. Drop the band to one side.
I'm going to go back to our calf raises. So just do either the straightforward calf raise or if you can, we're going to start coming up with two legs, taking one leg away and lowering down slowly on one leg. And alternate legs. Again, you get the balance effect with this exercise as well.
So you're also working on proprioception, which is really important after any kind of lower limb injury or surgery. Once again, if you want to put a hand on a wall or the back of a chair while you're doing this first, that's absolutely fine. Just try and use it as little as possible. And grab the band once more.
Do one more set. Back into the calf raises. So once again, alternate feet. And as with all of these exercises, if it doesn't feel like you're quite ready for it, it's fine to do the easier version until you build the strength up.
The idea is that you're progressing at your pace. And rest there. And finally, to finish day three, we're going to go back into the straight leg raises. But this time we're going to make it a little bit harder.
And we're going to lift both legs slightly off the ground and we're going to alternate. So we also get a bit of a core exercise here. And those core muscles are important for controlling the movement of the legs, moving to the hips. And that's one of the things that's going to protect against future injury or recurrence of injury.
And rest there for a minute. Take a couple of deep breaths. And then once again, we're just going to do a few more. And rest.
And that's it for day three. So we'll see you back here in a couple of weeks' time for day four.
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