6 months post op!!

Tomorrow marks a big milestone in my road to recovery - 6 months since my original ACL reconstruction! It's been quite a journey so far and I've still got a long way to go... in all honesty I am only half way there due to the early complications with infection and also due to my body shape / weight i.e. 6 ft 5 and weigh 97 kgs. I say this as my physio says it's hard for taller people who usually weight more to come back as the knee has to cope with and support more which makes sense.

Today I saw my physio for the first time in 5 weeks and he re-iterated that I am on track with my rehab program. He also said that I am around half way there but that I have caught up with most other people who would have had a knee reco around the same time last year which is encouraging to hear. He asked how my running has been going and I said that it has been good as I've been running twice a week (2-2.5 kms at a time) along with doing leg weights twice a week. He introduced me to two new exercises:

1) Hopping from side to side on my operating leg but supporting my weight by holding until something i.e. desk, table or bed. So I finally get to do some plyometrics!! I did this exercise in front of him and he said that it was noticeable that I had much more spring in more good leg which is to be expected at this stage. He wants me to do 4 sets of 30 seconds every day if possible.

2) Steps Ups (on a step or bench) - He noticed that when I did a couple of bridges on each leg that my glutes on my operated leg where lagging behind my good leg. So he wants me to do 3 sets of 15 steps ups. When it gets easy I will progress to holding 5 kgs dumbells in each hand

I will be doing the above 2 exercises for the next 5 weeks along with continuing with running and leg weights. He has also encouraged me to do more bike running and lots more walking. When he sees me next he will assess if I am ready to take the next step which is running between cones (weaving). I'm looking forward to the next few weeks and to progressing further hopefully!

Hamstring soreness!

In the last couple of days the hamstring of my operated leg has been quite sore along with some knee soreness as a result of a 2km run I did on Wednesday night. Whilst I'm really happy to have come so far it just shows how long I have to go! Despite running on soft grass once again and walking laps in between running laps I felt the impact of running the longest distance I have to date. In the last 3 weeks I've been running twice a week and have been building up the distance slowly as advised by my physio.

I've also been doing my usual gym routine - upper body weights, leg weights, cross trainer and excercise bike regularly. On Sunday I went to the pools for the first time in a couple of weeks and it was great to be back in water once again. The low impact activites helped and the knee felt a lot better after it which is a reminder for me that I should be spending more time in the pool! One of the highlights from Wednesday's run was running a lap with the boys at soccer training. They were happy to see me running and gave me lots of encouragement. It gives me a lot to look forward to and to continue to train hard towards.

Tonight I'll be doing another gym workout followed by 10-15 minutes on the cross trainer. I hope to go for another run on the weekend and hopefully pull up better this time around.  I'm seeing my physio next in two weeks time and hope to be running 2.5 kms by then. Hopefully I will be cleared to do some direction change type running shortly along with plyometrics.

First proper run

I went for a proper run on Saturday for the first time and it went really well! My physio has advised me to start slowly and to run one lap followed by walking a lap so I followed his protocol.  I ran a 400 meter lap to start with and straight away I could see how much fitness I have lost as I was breathing quite heavily at the end of it. I then walked a lap, ran another, walked another lap, ran a 3rd lap and walked one more lap completing this all in approximately 20 minutes. So overall I ended up running around 1.2 kms and walking around the same distance also.  My physio wants me increasing the overall distance by 800 meters every 10 days and wants me running approx 2.5-3kms by the time I see him next (in 5 weeks time).

It's also worth mentioning that I ran on soft grass around an oval and that definitely help so my knee didn't complain too much and I didn't have a bad reaction at the end of it. I'm looking forward to running next (most likely tonight) and getting my fitness back up!