ACL & PCL Knee Exercises

The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) and PCL (posterior cruciate ligament) are critical to the stability of the knee. When these ligaments are injured, the knee is highly unstable during even minor activities. In most cases of a torn ACL or PCL, surgery is necessary to repair the damage. But in some cases, physical therapy can help heal a damaged ligament. These exercises are used during physical therapy for ACL and PCL injuries.

Quad Sets

• The quadriceps muscles are the large muscles on the upper leg that help to stabilize the knee joint. They are among the first to shut down when there is a knee injury. The therapist will have you sit or lie down, tighten the ring of muscles surrounding your kneecap, and press the knee down towards the surface on which your leg is resting. If you do this correctly, you will see your kneecap slide "up" towards your thigh before you press the knee down. It will also hurt if you are recovering from injury or surgery. You will begin with as few as 10 and eventually work your way up to 20 repetitions of this, and then do another set after a short rest. Quad sets are something you will do throughout your rehab.

Heel Slides

• Another exercise you will do to increase your range of motion and keep the knee joint loose is heel slides. This is when you sit and bend you leg so your foot is flat on the ground. Using a towel or Theraband (a large rubberband-like piece of exercise equipment) around the ball of your foot with the loose ends in your hands, you raise your toes, keeping your heel down, and use your hands to help you slide your heel towards your rear end as far as you can, then slide it back out. This exercise will also be painful, and it is important to perform it initially under the guidance of a professional to make sure you do not over (or under) do the exercise.

Leg Lifts

• You will do a variety of leg lifts and leg curls, and one that works specifically on your ACL and PCL ligaments is prone knee flexion. You will lie on your belly, with your legs flat. Slowly, you will bend the sore leg, bringing your heel up and back towards your rear end, hold for ten seconds, lower and repeat. Usually you will do two sets of 20 repetitions each, and build up from there.

Additional Exercises

• There will be many additional exercises your physical therapist will have you do as you recover from surgery. Toe-raises, where the patient stands flat footed and raised onto their toes, then lowers back down, then rises again, are a common exercises that will begin early in your recovery and continue throughout physical therapy. There will be weight machine exercises, such as leg curls and leg presses. The exercises will be aimed at strengthening the muscles that surround and support the knee joint. All this will help the knee function, and keep the knee from being reinjured.