Question on knees

[Cris]

I injured my knee a few years ago skiing(got a surgery to fix it) ACL completely torn and MCL severely sprained. So my question is: I kinda slacked off at the time with my physical therapy(and stupidly went back to skiing too early and sprained it again slightly) and as a result my range of motion and strength in my knee is nowhere near what it used to be. Can anyone recommend a good way to strengthen and loosen up(meaning get the range of motion back) the joint?

 

[Kacey]

Go back the physical therapist. Not fun, I realize - but anything the rest of us could suggest, without being professionals and without seeing your knee for ourselves, would be more likely to intensify the injury than to help you in any way.

 

[searcher]

Go back the physical therapist. Not fun, I realize - but anything the rest of us could suggest, without being professionals and without seeing your knee for ourselves, would be more likely to intensify the injury than to help you in any way.

This is where you start. Once you have been cleared, go find a reputable personal trainer. The trainer will need to have an ACSM certification. The reason I say this is that they will have a greater knowledge rehab than most others.

 

[Cris]

ummm, the last official(had a friend of the family that was certified in that sort of thing finish off my physical therapy, but she's no longer around) physical therapist I went to was $500 a visit without insurance(with insurance it was *much* more reasonable) and I don't have insurance at the moment.

 

[turtle]

If you can't afford the PT visits, you might try things you did in PT the first time around. I found the exercise bike the most helpful in regaining ROM and those elastic band resistance exercises good for both ROM and strengthening. Both of these are pretty low risk common sense type exercises that you can do without worrying too much about making things worse.

 

[Cris]

I'm fairly certain its not injured anymore. I just think I never completely got my range of motion back. Its mostly the straightening out part of the ROM. I doubt I'll get it all back, cause before the injury and surgery my knee was naturally hyper extended(my good knee is still hyper extended) and I'm sure they put it back together with normal extension in mind.

 

[Skip Cooper]

What everyone else said...plus bodyweight squats. I tore my ACL and sprained my MMC 10 years ago, these worked for me. I couldn't afford more than one visit to a PT at the time. I continued to use the exercises that she showed me and once I regained my ROM, I added the squats. I started by squating to just above parallel to the floor and slowly worked my way into deep knee bends.

If you currently have insurance, I would urge you to have it checked out. You could have damaged your knee again and any further training might prove counterproductive.

 

[kidswarrior]

As many have said, none of us seems to be a medical professional, and there's no substitute. But...I've had bad knees for years (a couple of decades, actually) and found that doing certain MA forms really strengthened them. This to the point that I began MA with steel braces, moved to heavy polyurethane braces, then the thinner elastic knit type, and then none at all. I've never tried to get ROM that would allow high kicks and the like, nor do I need to do the splits so no knowledge about that, but for sheer strength and stability, this worked for me--over a number of years (2-3, s.th like that). Note to self on joints: if it hurts, STOP! Oh, and I hated forms when I started because couldn't see any usefulness.

Best wishes and keep us up to speed.