What to Expect When Recovering From an ACL Injury
February 22, 2017
Few sports injuries are more frustrating to deal with than an ACL tear. It’s the bane of athletes worldwide, and one of the most difficult injuries to recover from. Whether or not you elect to have surgery, an ACL injury is likely to sideline you for the season, something that no athlete likes to hear. However, you need to make sure that you go through the recovery process correctly, or you could end up turning a season-ending injury into a career-ending one. If you’ve recently injured your ACL, here are some things that you’ll likely experience in the coming weeks and months.
Knee Braces
One of the first things you should do after an ACL injury is to visit a Toronto sports medicine clinic
to plan out your recovery strategy. One of the things you’ll likely get is a knee brace that is specifically tailored to those who are suffering from ACL injuries. The knee brace will take the stress off of your knee joint, allowing you to move around without worrying about aggravating the injury. If you have surgery, you’ll need a knee brace during the recovery process, as your knee heals and builds back up again.
Physical Therapy
You’ll likely be doing a lot of physical therapy in the months following your ACL injury. If you have surgery, you’ll actually be getting a set of “prehab” exercises that you will have to do before the surgery, to help you in the post-surgical recovery process. After the surgery, you’ll be going through a series of exercises that will gradually build your knee back up and strengthen the muscles around your knee. Without proper guidance patients either overly avoid exercise or overdo exercise. Both of these scenarios can cause short and long term problems. You need accurate professional advice and supervision by your sports medicine doctor and physical therapist (could link two previous terms) available at a (Toronto sports medicine clinic) -convert to link to make sure that you’re doing the right exercises and at the right intensity to help but not hurt your knee.