Sebastian Brosche · 12 min · 1,406 words
Previously titled: Video 1 - MCL Sprain Rehab Program
Hi everyone, welcome to our rehab plan for medial collateral ligament strains of the knee. So, medial collateral ligament is a ligament that goes on the inside of the knee here. It connects the femur to the tibia and this is a commonly injured ligament. You can injure it either from a sideways impact knee, just from twisting it when you're grappling, or it can be a result of a leg lock or a heel hook.
So I see a lot of these in clinic. This particular plan is aimed at people who have a grade 1 ligament strain, so not one of the more serious strains. Now, if your strain is more serious than that, these exercises may be appropriate later on in your rehab programme, later on in the recovery period, but definitely use it in conjunction with any advice that you receive from your doctor or other healthcare practitioners. So, if you've had an acute injury, so you've just strained it, there's likely to be quite a lot of inflammation around the knee, you might have lost some range of movement, and there's also likely to be quite a lot of pain.
So one of the first things we're going to start doing is just gently moving the knee backwards and forwards, up to the comfortable limits of the movement. I'm going to do lots of these. So this is something that you can actually do through the day, lots of reps, little and often is the best way to go. I'm going to take it as far as I can into extension.
You might find that you can't completely straighten it, and you'll probably also find that you can't bend it fully either. So we're just going to go backwards and forwards between those two extremes. You can gently encourage it, but I don't want you to force it, because the idea is we're not going to try and push the knee into a position it doesn't want to go into. And with all of these exercises, you shouldn't get more than minor discomfort when you're doing them.
If you're feeling painful, you need to back off, do a little bit less. Do listen to your body when you're doing these exercises, because that's the best guide to what's the right amount to do and to avoid doing too much and flaring the symptoms up. So I can assist by using my hand. I'm just going to do lots and lots of reps.
So that's one of my first things. As time goes on, I start to get a bit more movement back. I can start to increase that range, encourage it a little bit further. As I start to get towards full extension, I can give it just a little bit of encouragement, again, not forcing anything.
So, I'm going to stop there. OK, and from there, we're going to do a set of isometrics. So I'm going to lie down. To start with, I want my knee straight-ish.
So like so, I'm going to have a comfortable bend in the knee. The other knee is going to be bent up with the foot planted on the floor to give me some support. And all I'm going to do is I'm just going to push my heel back down into the floor, into the mat as hard as I comfortably can. And I'm just going to hold that.
So I'm using the hamstrings, but it's an isometric contraction, so I'm not moving anywhere. I'm just pulling down and engaging those muscles. And again, I only do that up to the point of mild discomfort. I don't want to take it past that.
And relax. And then from there, I'm going to lift the leg up. I can do some small lifts up and down. So again, if it's painful to straighten the leg, I can keep the leg slightly bent.
I'm just going to lift up and down. And then we're going to go back to pulling down into the mat again. And rest. Lift.
So if it's comfortable, I can start taking it a bit further. And then final time. And then. OK, next thing I'm going to do is I can use a ball.
If I haven't got a ball handy, a pillow will work just fine. I'm just going to put it just slightly above my knees. So I don't want it to contact the sore place. So it's just going to go to my thighs, feet planted on the floor, and I'm just going to squeeze inwards, just engaging the adductor muscles.
So I'm just going to go down, and I'm going to squeeze inwards. I'm just going to squeeze inwards, just engaging the adductor muscles. Just hold it as a static squeeze. And rest.
And do the same again. Squeeze and hold. And again, only just up to the point of any pain or discomfort. And rest.
Just going to do one more of those. And squeeze. And rest. And rest.
And then from there, I'm actually going to lie onto my side. So I want the injured side on top. I'm going to drop the ball off to one side now. And I'm going to do knees together.
I'm just going to lift the top leg, squeeze these muscles here in my butt, my glute muscles, and down. So I'm just going to lift and hold. And relax. And relax.
And then holding the leg out straight, just small up and down movements. And rest there. We're just going to repeat that one more time. And lift up.
And relax. Again. And relax. And one more time.
And relax. And then straight into those straight leg holds. So hopefully you should be feeling a bit of a burning around this hip and not too much in the way of pain at the knee. That's what we're aiming for with this one.
And if you start to get pain at the knee, do stop, back off, do a little bit less. I say it's fine to listen to your body. It's very important at these early stages not to overshoot, not to do too much all at once. So we're looking at doing little bits, but regularly.
And rest there. And there. We're just going to go back to where we started at the beginning. And we're going to go back to our bending and straightening again.
So I want you to use these exercises in conjunction with all the other things that you would normally do when you've just had an injury. So when you finish this, if you can go, maybe pop your leg up on some pillows or some cushions, just elevate it and put an ice pack on the area. And sometimes also a compression wrap or compression bandage can help to reduce inflammation in the area, help to make things more comfortable in that early stage. So, again, the most important thing at this point in the recovery is to start trying to get a little bit of movement back.
I think it is gradually encouraging it. You're going to coax it. You're not going to try and force it. And the more you do this, the easier it will start to get.
So I'd like you to go and do these few little things several times a day in that early stage while everything is just getting started. So this might seem really dull, but it's the sort of thing that you want to do. So I'm going to go and do these few little things several times a day in that early stage while everything is just settling down. So this is the sort of thing that you can do while you're watching TV or while you're watching training videos or anything else.
Just sit there, put some movement through this. Even if you're sat at your desk at work, you can just be putting little bits of movement through that knee, keeping that going. And that will help everything to settle down faster. So I'm going to leave that there for today.
So that's it for today. And when things have started to settle down, I want you to come back. Day two is going to focus a little bit more on some strength exercises and we're going to start getting you more back towards returning to jujitsu.
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