ACL tear is a common sports and orthopedic injury that I want to spend some time simplifying. So you just had ACL surgery or injured it and need to know everything to succeed? What is your anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and what is its role in knee care? Who is at risk? How do I prevent an ACL tear? I have knee pain (during rehab) and years after. What is appropriate for my ACL and what should I stay away from? These are the questions I hope to shed light on. The American Physical Therapy Association has developed a Clinical Practice Guidelines that unified the information and methods of how to rehabilitate from a tear. I will add my two cents in how to bulletproof your knee and reVITALize your knee into superhuman capacity and performance. Lets delve into the technical.
How does the knee joint work?
The two long bones, femur and tibia, join to make the knee joint. This complex joint looks and function like a hinge. A knee is design to straighten and bend with minimal rotation. To make this example simple, lets say the knee functions like a “true” hinge guiding a door to open and close. If you can understand this concept then you can make sense of all the nonsense out there in the internet and what advice you may hear. A knee is in a healthy position when you bend, squat, lunge, jog, and bike. All of these activities requires little to no rotation. The meniscus and knee ligaments limit the rotation. This is why our meniscus and ligaments are susceptible to aging faster. Our hips and ankle provide most of the pivoting and twisting. When we sit too much or reduce the amount of total body movement training, our body “dumbs” the impact of our hips and ankles. We have become a knee dominant society. (more…)
This article is my latest continuation of the ACL 101 series. ReVITALize Rehab Club is designed to simplify the medical jargon so every member can be empowered in their own care. Social media and medical information in the internet are notorious for giving snippets of fitness and medical care and I want to bridge that gap so every member can get in the heads of the medical and fitness professionals to make the best decisions for themselves.