ACLR Post-Op Diary – Week 2

3-Dec-2022 Saturday (8th day after surgery)

Woke up with now-classic morning knee pain-stiffness, so I jumped on the ARTROMOT for 40min to loosen it up. Started with 95 degrees of flexion and then ramped it up as it got looser/warmed up.

I am walking around the house without crutches. I felt the knee is more “complaining” than usual, so I did more icing, compression and elevation.

My son is with me and we had a friend Andrija visiting. We have watched Lord of The Rings: Return of the King together and ordered some food, while I was resting. After Andrija left, Niksa and myself did a workout together. Videos below demonstrate few exercises that I did. As always, I tend to take protein, collagen, and vitamin C before working out.

3rd December Workout A – Video

3rd December Workout B – Video

As can be seen from the video, I did “walking drills”, and “ankling” in place, as well as going backwards, forwards, sideways, walking in various directions on my toes, and finished with isometric holds using double and single leg variation. Is this provoking the graft? This keeps bothering me all the time? How do I know? I am not sure this is “harder” than simple walking, or walking up the stairs to be honest – if that is recommended, then why there is stigma against these exercises? Walking is more stressful on the graft, than these drills. Same thing for the OKC knee extension. In the video below you can see variation of the isoPush I picked up from Mick Hughes, where I push the swiss ball for 6-10sec at around 60-40 degrees.

3rd December Workout D – Video

Finished the workout with the NEMS, and this time I fell no discomfort whatsoever.

3rd December Workout C – Video

4-Dec-2022 Sunday (9th day after surgery)

After the usual morning routine…