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ACL Knee Rehabilitation Exercises

An ACL injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament in your knee develops a tear, causing your knee to feel unstable. According to Mayo Clinic, these injuries commonly result from intense movement or exercise, such as movements you perform when playing football, soccer and volleyball. Treating an ACL injury often requires reconstructive surgery, and will always involve rehabilitation exercises.

  1. Pre-Op

    • Prior to ACL surgery, patients should restore full range of motion to their affected knee by completing some pre-op rehabilitation exercises. According to the Chester Knee Clinic, restoring range of motion will help decrease the likelihood of stiffness and other complications after surgery. Some common exercises include prone hangs, wherein you lay with your stomach flat on a bed, and straighten your legs so they hang off the edge; heel props, wherein you prop up your foot on a rolled towel and allow gravity to pull your knee into extension; and heel slides, wherein you sit on the floor and slide your knee in toward your butt, and then let it out again. A variation of the heel slide is the wall slide, wherein you bend the knee, with your foot flat against a wall, and slide it up and down. According to Mayo Clinic, for some patients, such as those who are relatively sedentary, elderly or who have health conditions and do not want reconstructive surgery, restoring range of motion through these exercises may be all the treatment that is necessary.

    Immediate Post-Op

    • For individuals who have surgery, rehabilitative exercising starts on the day of the procedure. According to the Chester Knee Clinic, that day, and every morning thereafter, you should perform 10 minutes of heel props. In addition, you should perform flexion exercises six times per day. These are the exercises that focus on increasing flexibility, such as heel slides and wall slides. Leg-control exercises should also begin immediately following surgery. Some of the most common include independent straight leg raises and quadriceps contractions, which you can accomplish by sitting with your legs straight, tightening your thigh and pushing down on the affected knee.

    Regaining Full Knee Extension

    • Once patients develop flexibility in their knee and can get around using crutches, rehabilitation exercises should focus on regaining full knee extension, and being able to walk unaided. According to Chester Knee Clinic, some common exercises during this stage include heel-to-toe walking, wherein you exaggerate the heel-to-toe action in each step; high-knee walking, wherein your pull your knee up extra-high during each step; and retro-walking, wherein you fully extend your knee during each step.

    Strengthening

    • Once patients are able to walk normally, the goal of ACL knee rehabilitation exercises are to increase strength, so patients can return to sports, exercising and other activities. Some of the best knee-strengthening exercises include calf raises, using a leg a press machine (one leg at a time), quarter knee bends and squats (wherein you bend your knees or squat only a quarter of the way down) and working out on a Stairmaster. Once the surgical wounds have healed, swimming is also a good exercise option.

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