Range of Motion Woes
These week has added a rather unpleasant physical therapy activity. An important aspect of rehabilitation for an acl injury, is the recovery of your range of motion. On my first visit to physical therapy, I had a range of motion of 2 - 70. This means that my leg was two degrees short of being able to be completely straight, and I could bend my knee at about 70 degrees. Normal range of motion for men is about 0 to 140 (although it can range to more extreme values such as -6 to 160), and for women it is -5 to 143. The negative values come from the fact the most people can hyper-extend their knees.
In order to get your range of motion back, it is necessary to stretch your leg. The way they do this is have you lie on your back, then the therapist puts their hands on top of your leg with one hand on each side of the knee, and presses down. Hard. This forces your knee to flex back down. They repeat this a few times, then have you lie on your stomach. This is where the real fun begins. The therapist then takes your leg and bends it towards you, pushing your heal towards your back, and holds it there for several seconds. This really hurts. This is repeated several times.
This painful exercise is necessary however, otherwise you could lose your range of motion and have to have another operation to remove the scar tissue that would eventually form around your knee. After three days of this treatment, my range of motion is now 0 to 128, much better.
Filed under: ACL Recovery
Thanks for the info. I had surgery about 10 days ago and will start therapy in 5 days. I cannot wait to get my range of motion back because I am in martial arts. I say right about now I am 2 - 45. It’s very depressing, but I work at it everyday. I don’t have a guide yet, so I’m not pushing too much as I am afraid that I will wreck something. The scar tissue feels very tight and thick. I need to get rid of it quickly.