[ito]

I know a few of you monkies have gone through ACL reconstruction and I was wondering how long it took and when you felt fully repaired, and for those of you still in the stages what your recovery has been like.

I'm in almost my 5th month of recovery and still don't have the full ROM, can't fully extend my leg and it's a bit slow. Is this fairly normal or am I falling behind? As far as strength, I'm still not as strong in my left(injured) leg as my right and the lack of muscle is quite visible.

My main question is, at what point could you extend your leg fully? And at what point did you regain the muscle you had lost? How long has it been since surgery, are you able to participate in biking at the same level?

Thanks for any help.

The Ito

 

[spincrazy]

Hey man. I'm 7 months post op acl recon, patellar graft. While the earliest you're suposed to be able to back to be "cleared for takeoff" is six months, I don't fully feel that way yet. Weather has been a big factor for me though. Anyway, get on that full leg extension asap. Mine wasn't fully @ 4 months or so and my surgeon got on me pretty hard. He said that you don't need to be able to bend it all the way like you used to do most everything there is to do, but you definitely need to fully extend to even just run. He threatened to put me in a night brace if it wasn't all extending by the next time I saw him. Just concentrate on stretching and consciously make the effort to fully extend whilst you walk. It'll come in no time.

As far as strength, it'll come too, just keep working. You're at the stage when rapid, visual gain isn't to happen. Things will have slowed by now. Just keep with the regular weight training and stretching and try to not at all favor the involved leg. Like when you're just standing there waiting for something, make sure your weight is evenly distributed over both legs and make sure you're fully weighting the involved leg when walking. Just make sure to not over do it as you could get pattellar tendonitis if you're exercising more than three times a week.

Timing wise for me, I don't expect to be totally recovered till after a full year. I'm good at 7 + months, but I'd have been better if it wasn't in the 20s for an entire month last month....I'll be at, and hopefully above, where I was @ biking wise by the end of spring. That's the goal.

I rode three days straight this Sat, sun and monday and toasted my quads by Monday. Not a bad thing, just tired them out and got that weak knee feeling slightly. Not even sore the next day though, just nice and loose and fluid.

Good luck. It'll come.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

It took me about a year to year in a half befroe I gained full movement.

 

[ito]

Thanks guys. I've realized that over the past few weeks I've been slacking on the leg workouts....focusing on upper body lifting. I've been doing what you said spin, just standing on my leg more and focusing on stretching it throughout the day.

Thanks.

The Ito

 

[spincrazy]

Originally posted by Brian HCM#1
It took me about a year to year in a half befroe I gained full movement.

Really? I've had it since 5 months.... I used to be mad flexible though.

Still getting used to not being able to feel parts of my knee though. sucks.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Originally posted by spincrazy
Really? I've had it since 5 months.... I used to be mad flexible though.

Still getting used to not being able to feel parts of my knee though. sucks.

I was 34 with a 5 month old boy when i had it done. Thats probably why, well I shouldn't say couldn't extend fully, I did in about 6 months, but when I tried to strech out my quads(bring leg back and try to touch my butt) I couldn't strech that far for quite a while.