Sebastian Brosche · 16 min · 1,012 words
Previously titled: Video 5 - Post-Op ACL Rehab Program
Hi everyone, welcome to the fifth and final day of our basic post-operative ACL rehab programme. Now this is day five, this is appropriate from around about 12 weeks after the operation onwards. So if it's earlier than that, please do go back and look at our previous days again. Also if you're coming to this, even if it's later on in the rehab plan, make sure you have done the previous days first because there's some useful information there that you'll need to cover.
So we're going to get on to a little bit more dynamic work today. Once again I want you to listen to your body. If it feels like you're not quite ready for something, either make it easier or leave it out for the time being and come back to it as and when you're ready. Also as I've said previously, make sure you're following the guidance from your surgical team.
So if they've told you anything about restrictions in range of movement or restrictions in what you can do, make sure you stick to those guidelines first and foremost. So we're going to start off today going straight into some squats. So once again I'm going to keep the range limited, so I'm not going to go as far as I can. I'm going to keep it to above parallel and again I'm just going to go as far as is reasonably comfortable and just coming back up.
So if I have any concerns about the depth, I can go back to doing the box squat or the chair squat as I have previously. And then from there I'm going to go straight into some lunges. So for the lunge we're going to keep it static, I'm not going to move my feet and I can shorten the range as much as I need to. So normally I'd try and touch the back knee to the floor but to start with I can just do a partial range lunge.
And I'm going to switch sides and do the same thing. I want to make sure I keep my back up straight and I'm splitting the weight as evenly as I can between the front and the back leg. And rest there, give the legs a shake out, take a few deep breaths. And we're going to go straight back into the squats again.
And back to lunges. And switch sides. And from there we go onto our back. So in day four we did some hip bridges.
Once again we can go back to a basic hip bridge. What we're going to try today, if we can manage it, is a single leg hip bridge. So I'm going to keep the other knee onto my chest. I'm just going to lift up and down.
And I'm going to do the same on the other leg as well. And back to the right leg. Some people find they get some cramping through the hamstring when they start doing the single leg hip bridge. If so, by all means go back to two legs.
A lot of the time that's actually a sign that there is some weakness in the hamstrings that does need to be addressed. The idea is that you want to be doing the exercise at a level that you can manage it and that's not causing pain when you do it. Switch sides again. And rest there.
And coming back up to standing. We're going to go into a single leg RDL. So a single leg hip hinge. And the idea is I'm going to take my opposite leg back and I'm going to fold my body forward at the same time.
I'm going to try and keep the body and the leg that I'm taking back in a straight line if I can. And then switch legs. And then come back up to standing. And grab your TheraBand.
As we've done previously, I'm just going to put the band around my knees. And we're going to do side steps. Drop the band to one side. And we're going to go back to the single leg RDL one more time.
And switch legs. And grab the band. One more set. And rest there.
So finally, the last thing we're going to do in this program is we're going to start reintroducing some very small jumps. So when I do these, at first I'm going to be barely leaving the ground at all. But the important thing is to get the mechanics of the landing right so that I'm training my muscles to absorb the force of the landing. So I'm going to drop my hips back, come up and down.
So again, very small clearance from the ground, but it's the mechanics that are important. I want to try and keep it as quiet as I can on the landing, because that lets me know that I'm absorbing the force well through the muscles rather than putting a lot of impact through the joints. Just rest there for a minute. So again, even if you can jump higher, I want you to keep it small at first, because it's important to build it up gradually.
So what we're going to do now is we're going to keep the jump very small, but this time we're going to focus on a single leg landing. Okay. Again, I'm just going to come up and land on one leg. So again, hardly any clearance at first.
So what I'm focusing on is trying to stick that landing and hold my balance. I'm alternating legs. So I'm going to do the good leg and the bad leg. And rest there.
So this is just a very small introduction to more dynamic work. So that's something that's important to build up over time. We will hopefully have another plan to follow on from this one to deal with a later stage ACL post-operative rehab. Thank you all for watching and we'll see you back here for our other plans.
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