Thursday, May 31, 2012

My Post-ACL Surgery Workout Routine (Phase I)

With the help of Google, my doctors advice, and my own body, I am writing out a workout routine that I will attempt to follow, up until my next doctors appointment in 2 weeks. This routine will change as the weeks and months go by so I will either update it here, or just start a "Phase II" post.

Follow after the jump for the exercises, reps, and my main goals behind these exercises:

I am not a doctor or a trainer (yet) but based on how well I know body, I have decided to do the following exercises:

1) Passive knee exercise (2 minutes, 3 reps)
- Sit on one chair and place your heel on another chair of equal height. Relax your leg and let it straighten like this for about 2 minutes a set. Aim for at least 3 sets a day.

2) Straight leg raises (100 reps)
- Lying flat on the bed, raise your leg straight up. Go for 100 raises a day.

3) Bend the knee (20 reps)
- Sitting on a high chair, ledge, anything that will prevent your leg from touching the ground when sitting on the edge of the bed, bend your knee to 90 degrees. Aim for 20 reps a day.

4) Quad-tighteners (200 reps)
- Sit upright on the bed or floor and flex your quads. Aim for 200 reps a day.

5) Stretching the hamstring (20 reps)
- Sit upright on the bed or floor and put your injured leg on top of the healthy toes. Place your hand over injured legs thigh and push down while at the same time using your other leg to push up. Aim for 30 reps a day.

6) Calf flex (200 reps)
- Keeping the leg straight, flex the calf. Aim for 200 reps a day.

7) Rotating the foot (100 reps to the left, 100 reps to the right)
- Title speaks for itself. Rotate the foot in both directions at 100 times each.

If these exercises get too easy or difficult, I will change up the routine in this post, and if I do, I will make sure to let you know. But as of now, while taking into account my pain, current range of motion (which sucks) and overall personal knowledge, I feel like this is a prime workout I can stick to for the next 2 weeks to stay on track for a successful recovery.

2 comments:

  1. The exercise routine looks good, considering that you were just starting at this point. I think the point is to just slowly make your body accustomed to exercise, rather than shocking it with the regular routine, which might cause relapse and possible complications later on.

    Kristine Remsen

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    1. Kristine, your right on point. These exercises were meant to get all my leg muscles moving again. Looking back on it almost one year later, its crazy to think how difficult they actually were at the time. And it also gives me a new appreciation for my health and physical abilities.

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