7 weeks post Op

Well for a normal surgery, 6 weeks is the mark you get to go right back in to doing what you use to do. That’s not the case in an ACL surgery. My hamstring has atrophied a lot. I am allowed to work on strengthening it now. My quad is still a little weak but it is much better than it was 2 weeks post surgery. My knee still has some swelling but I can actually see the shape of my knee cap.

My PT regimen is getting longer and longer every week. We add new things to perform each visit I get with my PT. It takes me about 2 hours to do all the stretching and exercises I’m recommended to do.  Slowly but surely I am regaining my strength and balance. PT is hard but it’s not like the kind of hard a good workout or training session is. It’s a whole lot of effort for small movements. I haven’t been in “pain” in the rehab, save for the stretching. Trying to get my extension on the bad leg to 0 degrees was one of the most torturous physical things I’ve ever done. All the other pain has been mental. I feel like a prisoner in my own body. With the knowledge of knowing what my body “should” be able to do; the things I use to be able to do, not being able to do small things is devastating to my ego. Not being able to do a 10lb single leg curl is someone embarrassing to myself.

I’m very lucky I have the new job at kink which keeps me busy and challenged. If I were idol to sit and dwell on all these things I can’t do, I would go mad. I’d like to say that I’m a warrior and I would tough it out but to be honest this is hard and if I wasn’t forced to keep my mind off of the rehab when I wasn’t working on rehab, I’d be really depressed.

I’m going to jot down what I’m doing for PT, this is more for my own reference down the line if I ever come back to this to see how I handled every thing

I wake up and stretch my knee with it levitated ( leg straight) and let gravity ease the leg into a 0 degree extension. I must hold this for 15 minutes. If you’ve ever done bondage and have been “forced” to stay in a position for any amount of time, you can relate to how annoying this is then add the sever pain of a leg doing what it does NOT want to do. I then do pretty much every leg stretch you can imagine.

3 sets of 10 step ups

3 sets of 10 step downs.

3 sets of 10 “clam shell” with band hip adductors

3 sets of 10 laying face down tighten butt, leg raises backwards

3 sets of 10 quad flexed, straigh let facing up leg raises

on a exercise ball, shoulders on ball, hips up( not allowed to droop) calf raises 3 sets of 10

on exercise ball, single leg raises 3 sets of 10

standing- single leg calf raises 3 sets of 10

single leg half squats 3 sets of 10

3 sets of 10 single leg leg presses

3 sets of 10 single leg laying down leg curls

Note: all single leg exercises are performed on both legs, just one leg at a time

25 minutes on a bike

25 minutes on a stair master

This takes me about 2-3 hours to complete.

after PT is done, I hit upper body weights. I work out different muscle groups each day. I’m excited that I finally was able to do a pull up today, I wasn’t able to do them recently because i was putting torque on my hamstring in a weird way. I am back to being able to do most upper body exercises without any pain. I’m greatly excited that I am able to do the stair master and bike as cardio. It’s not my preferred method of cardio but who cares I’ll take it.

So there it is. I don’t expect much to change in the next 6 weeks except maybe the weights that I’m adding to any of the exercises. I will not get permission to run until may. I wont be able to wrestle for a while 🙁 it’s a slow process.