A knee knows

I tore the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in my left knee skiing at Mt. Wachusett in central Mass. on January 18, 2007. This is a common injury to weekend warriors like myself, so I thought others might like to know what happens once you've done something unfortunate like this to your body. Maybe you've injured yourself too, and feel like the game's over. However, you can return to your sport -- you just need to stay focused and do the work.

Here's where it started...



Friday, March 30, 2007

Three weeks post-op

This week, I've finally returned to a more or less normal workout regimen. I'm now alternating upper and lower body workouts with miscellaneous knee and shoulder rehab exercises on each day. Yesterday at PT started doing what you might call side lunges on the involved leg. Also did alternating lateral raises on each side to help improve balance and prioprioception in the involved leg. I was surprised doing these that I'll have to work a bit to regain a good sense of balance on the leg.

The PT cleared me for riding a stationary bike for as long as I'm comfortable. To this point, I haven't put in more than 15 minutes. After a session the other day, I was a bit sore afterwards, but that could be the resistance training too. I pushed 50#, barely, with the involved leg, being careful not to flex or extend too far. It might be better to go down to say 45# and shoot for more reps.

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