The Return Of The Avatar

R ACL complete tear 9/11/22 R ACL reconstruction with R Quad tendon autograft 6/7/23

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Strength Check:

8/21/23

L 81lbs. RFD 1.36sec

R 38lbs. RFD 1.93sec

%LSI: 47%

10/13/23

L 78.7lbs.

R 56.2lbs.

%LSI: 72%

12/4/23

L 84lbs.

R 70.3lbs

%LSI: 83%

1/29/24

L 98lbs

R 82lbs

%LSI: 83%

2/5/24 RTS testing

L 3.09 Nm/kg

R 2.74 Nm/kg

%LSI: 89%

5/7/24

L 111lbs

R 92lbs

%LSI: 83%

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3/24 POD 294:

I played for the first time on grass in a long while. It’s the first time I’ve put on cleats in 1 yr and 5 months. About 9.75 months post surgery. These were the cleats I had bought just before the series I tore my ACL. They arrived in the mail a week or two after I tore it on 9/11/22.

Mentally still working on the fear but was going maybe at 70-80% speed. And it felt pretty good. The frisbee part is rusty. I think a part of me was hoping after most of the rehab was done the frisbee would come back naturally at about the same level I left it but of course it isn’t. But so happy I got to put the cleats on and play the 6-8 points I did play.

Post- frisbee knee status - not swollen or stiffer than usual, even a couple days after. Maybe quad tightness but so far so good! It feeling the same is very good news for me. Just gotta up the reps now.

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3/20 POD 290 Summary:

About 9.5 months out - just grinding the strength and plyometrics these days. Trying to get my bouncy knee back and get rid of the stiffy knee landings

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2/5 POD 245:

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1/29 POD 238:

Planning on getting return-to-sport tested soon.

PT today: did some new things like box jumps + hand eye coordination catching balls, lunges with elevated heels, goblet squats with elevated heels, RDLs with elevated heels, the usual alternating lunges jumps, leg press, push/pull sled, reverse treadmill

1/29/24

L 98lbs

R 82lbs

%LSI: 83%

ROM knee flexion - an easy “just below 150” is what he said

Throwing + Pulled a double day at the gym a lil.

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1/14/24 POD 223:

Played two points of beach frisbee. Felt real good! Shock absorption piece didn’t feel like when I run on solid ground so it felt great.

Randomly my knee/patella also got stuck less in the following weeks after I played those two pts

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11/21 POD 168: Summary

Leg gym day

TOUCHED MY HEEL TO MY BUTT!!!!

Barely.. but STILL!

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11/4 POD 150: Summary

- Spanish squats, Single / double leg press, trx squat jumps, trx alternating split lunge jumps, reactive side shuffling, reverse treadmill, kneeling eccentric quad with band

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10/23 POD 139: Summary

Not any more stiff or painful than after PT. Less than I expected after jogging yesterday

In PT today:

Fire hydrant, squats, single leg pogo jump, trx squat jumps, trx alternating lunge jumps, push/pull sled (105#?), leg press - single leg with 25# and double leg 55#

BFR SAQ and split lunges

135deg easy smooth flexion with goni

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10/22 POD 138: Summary

Review of 10/18 PT session - knee was still feeling a bit stiff post-Mon-PT. He regressed my exercises a bit.

Then I spent the rest of the week doing no exercises beyond some stretching and massage gun

Today, I decided to do a little bit of super light jogging. 2 laps around my block doing maybe 30sec-1min? Maybe max 45sec tbh of slow jogging and then walking in between.

Pain-wise: a little bit on the anterior/lateral area below my patella. But felt a bit like when I’m getting my scars mobilized. A little like numb/milddddd tingling/achy pain all localized in that spot. Very minimal and immediately goes away when I stop. Also doesn’t give me pain when I’m slow jogging (even slower) around the house. Thinking it might just be the ground material + speed that is impacting shock absorption/ vibration up to my knee

Self measured flexion on an app: 142deg. Mild pain/tightness in ant knee only

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10/16 POD 132: Summary

BFR with SAQ and lunges, adding weight onto SAQ

Feels like my active terminal knee extension is getting a little bit better

Was able to stand on my knee fully extended with little to no pain during session today

Did reverse treadmill, pogo jumps double leg AND single leg (new), squats with TRX, and then deep full squats with TRX (new for range), did leg press double leg and single leg, then did pull AND push sled (new) adding 10 more lbs (45+30? I think), single leg sled lunges fwd and back, monster single leg jumps (new!)

Didn’t get range measurements today but see pics! My first few vs my last deep squat with me sitting on the wedges

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10/13

~ 4 months and week out

Doing some pogo jumps, single leg and double leg press, squats, reverse sled, reverse treadmill, standing fire hydrants

Did BFR with SAQ and lunges

136 knee flexion was easy today

Asked about going back to work at 5 months vs MD’s 6 months. PT said 6 months would be great but 5 months is fine.

Quad strength

L 78.7lbs.

R 56.2lbs.

%LSI: 72%

Approved to do the littlest of jogs!

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9/18 POD 106: Summary

BFR - still doing SAQ, but did lunges today too

Reverse sled, reverse treadmill, TKE against ball

Range - easy knee flexion to 130 post-STM

In general, it feels better. When my knee feels stuck, some quad STM and inferior patella mobs do the trick. Still need to do more HS stretching and quad/ TFL massage.

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8/30 POD 87: Summary

- new passive pain free motion went from 115 last week to 119 knee flexion

- no BFR. I think he forgot

- did TKEs, SAQ, ball presses into wall (like TKE kinda), split lunges up and down, sled again, I think that’s it

- stretching and massage

- HW was to do HS stretch

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8/25 POD 82: Summary

- new PT recommended by the Chris Powers. So far with just the eval seems like he knows things

- BFR: SAQ no weight -> 3#, TKE -> L knee drive with R TKE

- just got a lot of STM to posterior chain, did some what looked like double legged woodpecker holding onto two poles and then single leg to do some dynamic HS stretching. Foam rolled glues and TFL.

- range 115->125 flexion. 7deg -> 0 extension

- pulling a sled backwards x4 lengths of the room. Toe to heel drive. 70#

- game ready ice

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8/23 POD 80: lifting 35# each side. Not full range tho

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8/23 POD 80: light jog at 2.5 incline at speed 4-5. Second time doing the 3 x1 min jogs