ACL Recovery

As hoped at the end of Week 30, the last three weeks have seen significant reduction in pain commensurate with a better level of activity and consistent use of The Stick self-massage tool. During Week 31 I used The Stick twice a day for about five minutes at a time. This rapidly reduced the pain and stiffness in the knee, and now I have it next to the sofa and will do a little roll out when watching a show in the evenings. A review of The Stick is forthcoming, but suffice to state that I have found it really useful, and while at £35 it is cheaper than a single sports massage, much less one or more per week, physios may also recommend taping together a couple tennis balls and rolling out your legs on those as a cheaper alternative. In addition to a much better level of casual activity over the last three weeks with commuting to evening classes, client meetings and recreational walks, I’ve enjoyed a more varied exercise diet over the last three weeks including swimming, ‘pregnancy fitness’ class and BJJ. The pregnancy fitness class at the gym is an enjoyable conditioning class that was challenging enough to be fun and got me doing some alternative conditioning things in a motivating environment, so good for leg and baby. I’ve been making an effort to attend our Friday BJJ class at the Ilford Fitness First and am always able to take part in the fist 30 minutes of Gracie self defence drills, which Coach keeps bump-friendly, and a portion of the drills on the floor. I am, of course, choosier about my training partners than pre-pregnancy, and I don’t spar. But it gets me out the house, I get to see some of the team and work on some of my (super ropey) moves and simply be around it, all of which are great for my overall sense of well-being.

Week	Physio	Milestones
31	Gym, BJJ and The Stick	Chronic pain of previous weeks dissipated after a week of Stick usage
32	Gym and BJJ	Felt especially strong in the pool and was able to do 30 laps at steady pace without pause (versus previous 10 laps then 1 minute rest)
33	Gym	Started weekly ‘pregnancy fitness’ class at the gym

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.

These past three weeks have been pretty diabolical in terms of rehab and my consistency has nose-dived. My routine was negatively impacted by 2 weeks of refurbishment work; had to stay close to home during weeks 28 and 29 to manage a variety of workmen. My body’s changing shape due to pregnancy also complicated matters, as simply going up a size in workout kit was not longer cutting it. Maternity sportswear is a whole can of worms that I’ll address for interested readers in forthcoming product reviews (have gotten a range of items from a variety of retailers that am currently ‘road testing’). By week 30 I had secured some threads for the gym.

Week 30 got me past the renovations and DIY disruptions and back towards ‘regularly schedule programming’. I worked conditioning on my home mats several times during the week as well as attended Friday night BJJ at Ilford Fitness First. While I’m not comfortable working on the ground with drills or sparring at this stage, I’m perfectly happy to work a range of Gracie basic self defence techniques; Coach warms class up with this sort of thing for 30 minutes, so I was able to participate and then observe ground drills and sparring. We looked at a variety of releases from wrist grabs and an arm bar defence versus a shove.

As my activity levels with pregnancy are reduced from those I was at by the end of 3 months of ACL recovery, there have been implications for the speed of my recovery and the comfort of my knee. During weeks 25-27 I reported stiffness and trouble with full extension; my Physio suggested ‘The Stick’ self massage tool, used by many runners and endurance athletes to work out tight hamstrings and calves, areas that foam rollers can’t really help with. I have ordered The Stick but it has not yet arrived and will review it once I’ve had an opportunity to use it for a couple weeks. Between the cool damp weather London’s been having over the past 3 weeks (think deluge) and the interruptions to my rehab schedule my knee is in a reasonable amount of constant discomfort. I hope to report much improvement in these areas at the end of week 33.

Week	Physio	Milestones
28	No gym due to managing renovations	Lots of DIY activity including a 9 hour stint of reassembling and replacing furniture
29	No gym due to managing renovations	Ordered first bits of purpose-made maternity sportswear
30	Conditioning, walking and BJJ	First BJJ class in 6 weeks

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.

Over 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 the progress of the latter. In Week 13 of my knee recovery, I was getting to the point where I could work to a high level of intensity and enjoyed my first, and as it turns out, last workout to exhaustion for the short term; just before discovering I was in a family way I hit a spin class hard and it was AWESOME! Hadn’t felt that good in weeks and while my cardio was down, it could have been worse and the knee stood up to it. Likewise, I had started to ease back into regular BJJ practice with drills and some sparring with trusted partners. Pregnancy reversed or at least stymied this trend in progress and has had a pretty big influence on my personal experience of recovery.

On the one hand it is not recommended to work to exhaustion when pregnant and on the other, during the first trimester I certainly didn’t feel well enough than to do more than the bare minimum. I’m about 19 weeks now and feel much more lively, nevertheless my exertion levels are much lower than pre-pregnancy. This also influences motivation, as it is difficult to feel pumped about doing a really boring workout at a pretty low level with no prospect of getting back to my pre-op, pre-preggo levels of fitness until next Spring. It is all a bit academic and de-motivating, especially in light of the idea that I’d be training and working out to a pretty decent level at this stage of knee recovery if that was the only issue that was being handled; a thought which should give heart to fellow knee-warriors! This may sound like complaint, but it isn’t meant to, simply laying it out and putting my rehab in context and while I do find it insanely dull to do light weights, walking, cycling and swimming, I am keeping as consistent as possible. Gotta do what you gotta do!

As the progress has slowed to a crawl, my physio sessions have changed too. Previously, they were more about tweaking my exercises and moving me on to more challenging movements. Currently, they are more about checking in and getting a massage to loosen up the hamstrings. While I have integrated more foam rolling which is great for the quads and IT-band, it doesn’t help so much with the hammies and calves. The Physio has recommended two options for self-massage:

1. taping two tennis balls together and rolling out the hamstrings and calves
2. using The Stick to roll out the offending muscles

Hope to implement this advice over the coming three-week cycle. Considering alternating my 3-week physio appointments with sports massage, as I’ve got a great guy who is cheaper and better for that, though my Physio is superior for tracking and guiding my recovery.

Week	Physio	Milestones
25-27	Gym, gym, walking, cycling and more gym.	Keeping it consistent

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.

After a hiccup with a nasty cold and recovery during weeks 20 and 21 was able to get back to regular gym sessions and in to see the Physio in week 22. Had been experiencing pain and stiffness at the front of the knee when walking or heading up stairs since around week 16 or 17. Physio did some massage to ease off the muscles and suggested that a combo of factors contributed to tightening up the muscles to pull on the knee. Since seeing her have sought to be more conscientious with the foam rolling, which definitely seems to keep the problem at bay, though sometimes a sports massage is the only thing that will work it out. For anyone with knee pain, would recommend investing in a foam roller (as a priority second to seeking medical attention and getting a diagnosis and path to recovery). They are cheap, easy to store and ‘self massage’ of your IT band and quads should really help with certain kinds of sharp knee pain.

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.