As the title suggests, I’ll be having knee surgery in a few days for a torn LCL. I’ve found that every time I get injured, my legs regain strength very quickly but my low back suffers from not being able to squat/deadlift. I’ve been thinking for a while how I’ll manage to maintain some of the strength in my erectors without overly stressing my hamstring (which is where they’re taking the tendon graft from) or bending my knees.
Any thoughts?
Unless the surgeon is strict, hip extension movements will likely be allowed. With hamstring grafts, knee flexion is usually more where a thoughtful progression is needed.
In other words, you may get away with RDLs, but not leg curls, which would work for you, as RDLs also hit the lower back.
After my hamstring graft (for ACL surgery), I was doing RDLs about 10 days post-op. I added 10 lbs or so a session. It felt fine, but I went up slowly to make sure the “new leg” felt alright.
You could do that, but if you want to push the lower back some more, you could go with single leg RDLs, as well as hop on the back extension machine, but only have the good leg’s foot hooked in.