Dealing With An ACL Tear

If you are an athlete or just a sports enthusiast, you must have heard of ACL or anterior cruciate ligament. This ligament is important since it connects the tibia to the femur bone. When this ligament is torn, it might as well signal the end of an athlete’s career. Simply because it takes around six months for an athlete to completely recover from an ACL tear. The athlete will have to go through the process of healing both mentally and physically.

If you have an ACL injury, the first step you need to take is to accept and come to terms with the idea that you will not be able to do active and physical sports for quite a while. This is the stage when athletes have a problem facing reality. That's why it is essential that you start rehabilitation soon after your surgery. At first, the pain will be a bit excruciating whenever you do the required exercises. You'll be asked to do a leg press repeatedly to bring back the strength and balance of your muscles and knee. Nevertheless, you must be careful to prevent getting your knee injured again.

After several weeks of therapy, you will feel your knee getting stronger and more stable. Therefore, you can begin bending your knee a little. You may ride a bicycle or do some treadmill exercises. It is crucial that you keep doing all your exercises to stabilize and strengthen your knee muscles. However, you should not overdo it. Swelling and itchiness are signs that you are doing the exercises too much. When it is about six or seven weeks, you can begin doing leg squats and curls to boost the strength of your knee. These exercises are effective to get better from your ACL tear.

Stretching are usually good for the recovery of your knee. So, you should do some stretching exercises frequently. Also, you need to have massages since it may help rebuild the muscles around your knee. When it is about two to three months, you could do agility exercises. Light jumping may help increase movement. Again, don't exert yourself too much. Or else, these exercises will be counterproductive.

Just after four months, you may go back to training and playing some active sports activities. The healing of an athlete will depend on the severity of his or her injury. Nevertheless, an ACL tear is considered as one of the most severe knee injury. Hence, you have to take a rest and not exert yourself too much. There is actually a high possibility that the injury can happen again. Pay attention to your knee and let it to heal completely before going back to playing your favorite sport.