Weights and conditioning in week 22 definitely showed signs of muscle loss and there was continued pain with squats and lunges. However, with consistency by week 23 most pain was gone during exercise and was building back up to pre-illness levels; squat reps still down and just managing the same weight per leg on the leg press machine. In week 24 was scheduled to see the Physio but completely slipped my mind, so won’t be back in for a few weeks. In the interim, will keep up with the gym work and foam rolling. Though I would much MUCH rather be sweaty and gross and learning on the mats, have been trying to enjoy the swimming more. I was a member of my high school swim team freshman year and while I wasn’t really in to it, I did learn a lot about how to swim so have been taking the chance to think back to what I learned and improve my stroke and flip turns. While I can’t say I look forward to these sessions, they do provide a good workout without inflaming my knee. One thing that makes the experience much more enjoyable is a decent pair of goggles; my first pair would fog up after a single lap – maddening! I picked up a pair of Zoggs Predator Flex goggles which fit very well and have lived up to their anti-fogging claims over the past month. If you’re in a position where you’ve got to integrate a lot of swimming into your routine, would recommend.
Week | Physio | Milestones |
---|---|---|
22 | Cut out treadmill and increased swimming. Continued pain with squats and lunges. | Back to 3 regular gym sessions/week after illness. |
23 | Swimming times increasing just through consistency and offers best way to push at this time, in terms of cardio benefit and no knee-side effects. | Pain in squats gone and much reduced in lunges. |
24 | Staying the course with weights and swimming. | Boosted sets of laps from 5 with a 1 minute rest to 10. |
Disclaimer
Every ACL op and recovery will be particular to the person. The thoughts and experiences recalled in this series of posts is in no way intended as medical advice or as a replacement for seeking medical attention for any injury. This information is presented merely as a record of one person’s experience with ACL operation and recovery.
19 Mar 2012 @ 6:22 pm
Hi Meg,
Thanks so much for your blog! Found it looking for ‘JJ advice after ACL reconstruction’ (this is day 5 of my personal recovery – woo). After some on-and-off, moving about and finding my London based club, I had been training for over a year solid when I got injured and now (almost seven months on) I can’t wait to go back. We do Japanese and Brazilian Ju Jitsu, but of course grappling on the floor is the best bit 😉
Post injury I actually signed up with a gym (!) and also decided to learn the front crawl, which was coming along quite well. Very motivated to get back in the water (and eventually on the mat, needless to say).
Anyway, best of luck for your recovery!!
Christine
21 Mar 2012 @ 1:29 pm
My left leg (the one I had acl surgery on waaaaaay back in ’97) still has less muscle mass than my right. It also doesn’t straighten all the way. Not sure if I just didn’t do my PT right or if it is a product of the surgery. It doesn’t affect my ability to do athletic things so far as I can tell. Glad to hear things are going well in your recovery!
21 Mar 2012 @ 1:41 pm
Who knows Allie! Could be a combo of things and you can do all the right PT and still have things not quite right; totally individual isn’t it and just have to recover as well as possible – unhappily it’ll never be 100% after an op, but you can get close! What sort of graft did you have? Could be related to the type of ACL op you had, there are many and preferences change over time.
I didn’t realise that you had this done too. Makes me feel a lot better as I know what a BJJ-maniac you are!
Pregnancy and BJJ: The First Trimester (Weeks 0-14) | MegJitsu
5 Apr 2012 @ 4:25 pm
[…] goggles. I mentioned in a recent discussion of my ACL rehab that quality goggles have made swimming much more enjoyable and as front crawl is set to be one of […]
ACL Operation Recovery: Weeks 25, 26, 27 | MegJitsu
12 Apr 2012 @ 6:56 am
[…] the past three weeks, have been ticking over the same physio and gym routine as in Weeks 22-44. There is no doubt that coordinating my pregnancy and my knee rehabilitation has taken a toll on […]