Well, you must have faced ACL surgery in your life and might be thinking about quitting all your day-to-day activities and sports. No need to worry as with some useful exercises you can regain the full range of motion without any hindrance. ACL is a tissue in our knee that connects the thighbone to the shinbone. The injury occurs when excessive jerk prevails in your knee while engaging in certain sports activities such as basketball, badminton, tennis, football, and skiing.
The function of ACL is to move, bend and provide stability to your knee at the utmost level without any discomfort. Besides all, ACL helps to stop the tibia sliding too far forward, thus offering a full range of motion to your knee joint while walking, running, jogging, and carrying day to day activities. Having an ACL surgery will land you with many restrictions to perform casual movements, causing pain and swelling. Well, this should be taken care of immediately before it gets too late.
Need for a Rehab after ACL Surgery
A good rehab program is a must to gain a full range of motion and to go back to your older activities. You cannot push yourself to the extreme without undergoing rehabilitation sessions, especially after your ACL surgery. However, you must be thinking about the need for rehab, well we have jotted down some points for you that will clear all your confusion.
- Subsidizes pain and swelling – It is not good to bear the pain as it leads to many discomforts. After an ACL surgery pain and swelling are ought to happen, to subsidize that, your doctor or physiotherapist will guide you with some medicines or ice pack formulation. Applying an ice pack will help to reduce the pain and swelling at the earliest.
- Have a relatively normal walking pattern – Joining a rehabilitation program for your ACL tear will allow you to walk in a better way without the help of crutches. The initial rehab sessions will make your knee strong enough to walk, letting you overcome the fear of using crutches.
- Helps to build Quadriceps and Hamstring Muscles – Well, there has been a possibility that you must have an ACL tear due to poor strengthening of your Quadriceps and Hamstring Muscles. Your physiotherapist will perform these exercises post ACL surgery, which will help with the strengthening of these muscles. It is advisable not to be negligent after finishing your rehab sessions. One should be performing the strengthening of Quadriceps and Hamstring Muscles regularly to evade any future ACL tear.
Top 5 Exercises Post ACL Surgery
1.) Quadriceps Contractions
Quadriceps contraction is the best exercise you should do after ACL surgery. This exercise strengthens your quadriceps, which is a large muscle group that controls your entire leg during movement. After the ACL surgery keeping your legs straight will be a problem. Well, practising this exercise will help you to achieve a straight leg position, without any discomfort. Quadriceps muscles play a very important role in all your casual movements that you do. However, strengthening this core part will evade all future injuries.
2.) Leg Raises
Straight leg raises are itself an injury rehab exercise. Doing leg raises has an array of benefits as besides ACL, it also offers to strengthen your upper body. Leg raises can do much more to your body, as it targets your front thighs, thus strengthening the hamstrings, calf muscles and glutes in your body. Apart from all the moves, leg raises helps to improve your body’s overall flexibility and balance, which is solely important to regain after an ACL surgery.
3.) Leg Extension
To generate extra power into your legs and to keep your legs in good shape, leg extension exercise is required. Performing this exercise will help your muscles in the front thighs to grow. The more toned your front thigh muscles will be, the better strengthen will develop. Leg extension exercise will help to keep your ligaments and tissues in a proper shape. Performing leg extension will power up your quadriceps muscles, as you do this exercise your quad muscles is contracted, to bring the knees up against the weighted resistance.
4.) Squats
Performing squats exercises targets your legs, lower back, and core muscles. Squats is an important rehab exercise that is on the menu after ACL surgery. Depending upon your recovery levels, your physiotherapist will guide you regards to this exercise, whether to perform half squats or full squats. Besides strengthening your knee joint, doing squats offers the required stability to your ligaments and thigh muscles. It also helps to maintain stability in your body, which is the most needed while playing any sports activities.
5.) Carioca
Carioca is considered an important agility drill exercise to restore full range of motion in your knee after an ACL surgery. Doing Carioca will pump your entire body and will make you eligible for any sudden movement. Being one of the best cardio exercises, carioca strengthens your heart rate as it increases blood flow in your body. Your knees, quad muscles, calves, hip abductors, and thighs get stronger with this unique agility exercise. Besides all, doing carioca improves your overall performance in sports that requires agility, lateral moves, and fast footwork. It’s good to incorporate carioca as a part of your daily exercise routine because you never know when you have to be agile in your life.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a health advice. We would ask you to consult a qualified professional or medical expert to gain additional knowledge before you choose to consume any product or perform any exercise.
