Masch-I didn’t have ACL surgery, I had a scope to clean out some debris that got lodged between my patella and femur. Anytime I would even walk for a while, my knee would completely lock up in the straight position. After further examination, this was caused by an acute injury on top of chronic knee injury. All this to say, I have no more cartilage on my patella.
The doctor was surprised that I could walk so “normal” in my condition. He said it was due to all the strength in my legs. So win for lifting. However, he told me to stop lifting heavy. Side note: he also asked me if I was on steroids because I powerlifted. This made me laugh really hard and not pay attention to aformentioned instruction. Anyways, he told me I’d need a new knee in about 5 years and the pain would get worse. So, my knees are supposedly pretty fucked.
Yes, I had to wait 4 months due to dissertation issues. I hardly saw a gym during that time for a few reasons: A)I was insanely busy writing my dissertation. B) Just going to the gym was a hastle. C) I let it get to me too much. This is where I hope you don’t make that mistake. Don’t let it throw you off just getting in the gym. Since I couldn’t power lift, or do ANYTHING lower body, I lost my internal drive. Okay, pitty party over, here’s the rest of the story.
I hurt my knee in June 2009. My surgery was in October. I started PT pretty quickly. They had me doing range of motion stuff for the first few weeks. Which was fine. Then things took a funny twist and what will be important for you. Even though it was a sports PT, I was stronger with an injury than most people there were healthy. So it wasn’t long before I fulfilled all of their standards for “health”. In fact, she started to have me do agility drills. I was in no condition to be doing these and I knew it.
By January 2010, I decided that I was still not okay, despite what the PT said. I sought out, Mike Robertson and Bill Hartman at IFAST. Bill is an amazing PT. The problem was, my road to injury had started long long ago. I was seriously quad dominant and had minimal hip mobility or glute, hamstring strength compared to quad strength. This is not only an issue for my problem but also leads to ACL injuries. So they put me on a REAL rehab program. I started by doing things that didn’t require much knee bending, but was all glute and core focused. The weights were really light, but doing the lifts properly was so hard that I’d be sweating buckets during the workout. So, I wasn’t doing the main lifts yet, but it gave me focus and motivation to go to the gym. As the months went by, more and more strength movements were put into my program. It took about a year to feel great. Honestly, it really flew by, because I wasn’t sitting around waiting to get better. It was an active process where I was involved. I am not exagerating when I say that I feel stronger now than I ever did prior to the direct knee injury. I’m very form concious and realize that I have little room for bad form, because my knees can’t absorb the weight. However, I know that my overall mechanics are better and my knees don’t hurt, even though the doc said they should.
With an ACL surgery, with the proper rehab, you will be able to get back to 100% (unlike me), if you get the proper rehab and realize that you’re young and have all the time in the world to get better and stronger. Don’t rush it, and invest in good rehab that will set you up for the long haul, and one who believes in lifting. Not just someone that will help you not walk with a limp. My PT had told me that squatting below parallel was bad.
Oh and one other thing. I did a lot of ART following surgery. I think that helped too. Some PTs are certified.
I know this is long winded but I hope it answers some of your questions. Let me know if you have any further questions about it!
