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Hey people hows it going? I'm new to the forum my name is Josh i live in Perth, Australia and i had an ACL recon last Thursday (feb 4th). Im just wondering is there anyone here thats had the same injury or similar and also what kind of methods in your rehab did you use to ease your way back into training/rolling.
Thanks :)
Hey mate, I had an ACL recon, and although wasn't doing any rolling at the time, I did come back to play rugby.
This is just my experience and everyone is different I guess and I'm certainly no expert, but a decent surgeon should have given you a good rehab program. I followed the rehab programme religiously and it was a top notch programme for returning to physical sport. I managed to lie my way into a surgeon in Auckland who repairs the professional union, league, netball etc players in NZ. I remember the first few months well because the rehab was pretty intense - although all self directed and I was very determined to play again. I'm guessing if you're asking after a week, then you are too.
The main things that built strength and got my confidence back early on were slow stationary biking to gain movement (within a week) and once the staples were out, I was walking, and doing light leg extensions, then I was doing light jogging once the walking was ok (all this within about three weeks). I was surprised how quickly I built up to longer runs. And that basic straight line movement was pretty good and although I would get quite tired, I was back to running 5-8km in one session in around 8 weeks or so. Although my fitness before the surgery was very good, running a half marathon at around the 5 month mark after the surgery felt like a huge achievement to me and the all important confidence started to come back.
There were lots of figure 8 movements, regaining movement / knee flexibility and strength stuff as well to rebuild lateral stability which would be critical for rolling (that's my opinion but I'm certainly not an expert). I was back in pre-season training at the 7 month mark and it took a couple of weeks to get confidence in my knee. I was full contact training two months after that, right on the "minimum" 9 month period.
For me, getting trust in my knee again was the critical thing. I can always feel my knee...no pain or anything when I'm not doing anything, but it's "there". It's hard to explain. maybe it's to do with the nerve damage from the patella tendon being removed to make the new ACL? I also have to keep working on the stability stuff. I find if I'm not, cartwheels can get a bit achy and I'm usually a little sore after training. Nothing to write home about, but I am 9-years post surgery so it's a worry for me. In saying that, rubber guard drills don't give me more of a hard time than anything else.
I guess I was ruthless on the rehab and looking after my knee for a year or two, but didn't look after my knee over the last few years. I've just started training a few months ago and I'm nearly 40, I'm realising that wasn't the smartest to ignore my knee.
Sorry for the novel! And best of luck for the rehab.
Cheers
Nick
I had my ACL reconstructed back in 2012. The best bit of advice I can give is find a good Physical therapist, let them know what you want to be able to do, and then do exactly what they tell you.. Religiously! Nick gave a pretty strait forward break down. Every PT does it a bit differently, but that was pretty close to how mine went. They had me build the muscles in my leg and once it was stable and reaching full range of motion work a lot of fast twitch movements since I was planning to grapple again. It took me awhile to get my confidence back in the knee as well. Again though the best advice I can personally give is rehab the hell out of it. Its painful and can take awhile so just be patient and listen to your physical therapist.
Thanks for getting back to me guys it's much appreciated.
My surgeon has given me an at home physio plan for the first 2 weeks, I have a follow up appointment with him this Friday, (which is 2weeks post-op), so I'm hoping he will refer me to a physio asap. It's great to see fellow grapplers come back from this injury!
Thanks again I'll keep you posted
Hey there jdavies.
I had my first ACL reconstruction done in 2003.
Then tore my other knee in 2006, 2009 and 2012.
All of that was non BJJ related. I started training BJJ in 2011, and it hasn't caused any (major) knee issues for me. I train usually 7-10hrs weekly.
Keep up on the PT, and get back on the mats when it feels good!
I had an MCL reconstruction 6 months, ago and am now back on the mats finally. Same as the other's advice, just do all the exercises you are told to by your physio and don't do too much, they made it clear to me in the early stages if they gave me a set of reps for exercsies it wouldn't help if I did two or three times as many reps. I started back at jits two months ago but hadn't fully regained full range of motion in my knee and had a couple of close calls so decided to back off on the training. I'm now back at training and the knee feels fine with full range of motion. I was doing a fair bit of kettlebell squats etc to help strengthen as well as Bosu ball work for stability. If someone gets me in an electric chair I can feel my knee but it's not painful...