Scenario You start having some knee issues running. You take a break from running. Knee calms down. You start running again. Knee problem comes back. Take another break. Begin running again. Knee starts bothering you yet again. Stop running again. Knee feels better. You’re ready to start running again, but you know how it’s gone […]
October 15, 2020
Comments Off on Understanding why your tibial slope can increase your odds of ACL injury
When it comes to predisposition for tearing the anterior cruciate ligament, we tend to focus on women. “They’re weaker, they have larger Q angles, is it something with their hormones?” We’ve found some truth in these hypotheses, though we’ve looked at the hormone factor and didn’t find anything. Men can only blame that on so […]
June 8, 2020
Comments Off on TKEs aren’t that great for knees
TKE = Terminal Knee Extension exercise. The most fundamental version of the exercise: Getting fancier: Adding some bro to it: More than once, this exercise has made its way around the interwebz as being the holy grail to solving knee pain. Namely by waking up the quadriceps, specifically the VMO (vastus medialis). I’ve covered the […]
November 25, 2019
Comments Off on Preparing for ACL surgery
We’ve talked a lot about recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. We haven’t talked a ton about getting ready for it. I certainly wouldn’t say the prehab is as important as the rehab, but the better you go in, the better you come out. -> This is why all surgeries have worse success rates […]
August 28, 2019
Alright, so the title of this is a little misleading. After all, whether you get ACL surgery or not doesn’t impact your risk of arthritis. I wrote about this in depth in, –Reconstructive ACL surgery: Is it beneficial? Here’s a more recent study backing that up, –Does Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction Improve Functional and Radiographic […]
November 16, 2018
Comments Off on Why the Triple Hop test isn’t always a good barometer for ACL rehabilitation
The Triple Hop test is a popular tool in the ACL rehab world as an indicator for how well the surgically repaired leg matches up to the non. In theory it makes sense. If the surgically repaired leg can perform as well as the non in a jump test, you have a good indication rehab […]
October 8, 2018
Comments Off on How much time off work should you take after ACL surgery?
I’ve been surprised how many times I’ve been emailed this question, so let’s add it to the ACL reconstruction writing of the site. What you do for work probably doesn’t matter Most initial responses to this question are “it depends what your job is.” Eh. Kind of. I mean, of course, if you’re a […]
July 20, 2018
Comments Off on Nutrition and surgery: How much should you eat after surgery?
Preface: Don’t underestimate this. I know plenty of people who have gained upwards of 60 pounds after a surgery. Some of them have trouble getting this weight off years later. In fact, I know one person who for nearly 70 years (!!!) had the same waist size. After a foot surgery he gained 60 pounds […]
January 28, 2021
Comments Off on When squats don’t help you run again