Late Stage ACL Rehabilitation: Strength Exercises

During late stage ACL rehabilitation it is imperative that athletes are challenged with exercises that will mimic the demands that will be placed on them when they return to sport. Here are some advanced drills that we like to incorporate into our athletes rehab. If you have had surgery or suffered an injury and are at the end stages of rehab but unsure of how to bridge the gap to return to sport, give us a call to set up an evaluation!
Strength is an important component to any rehabilitation program. Once an athlete has gained proficiency in a movement, particularly at the end stage of rehab or beginning of return to sport, it is important to continue to find ways to make exercises sports specific, challenging, and engaging. These are a few examples of strengthening exercises using a variety of visual, tactile, and sport specific cues to further challenge the athlete and facilitate a return to sport.
Strengthening:
1. Rear foot elevated split squats with visual tracking: This exercise is great for strengthening the quads and glutes as well as adding load to the hip flexor of the back leg in a lengthened position. By using visual tracking with the tennis ball, we are adding a balance challenge and preparing athletes for return to sport by shifting their focus to what in front of them instead of on their knee or the ground.
2. Single leg RDL with volley: We are strengthening glutes and hamstrings as well as challenging balance and stability in a single leg position. Adding a volley with the soccer ball makes this more sport specific and increases the balance requirement on the standing leg.
3. RNT Lateral Step down on Cue: We are utilizing Reactive Neuromuscular Training (RNT) here to force the athlete to prevent the knee from being pulled into a caved/valgus position while performing a lateral step down, an effective single leg glute/quad strengthening exercise. The step-down is to be performed once the athlete catches the ball, adding another dynamic layer to the task at hand, providing significant stress to the neuromuscular system.
4. Multidirectional Reaction Lunge: This exercises is utilized to achieve deceleration and quick loading of the knees and hips. The athlete is instructed to lunge in the direction they are pushed in to emphasize a quick reaction and prevent anticipation. Perturbations and various types of contact are imperative for athletes returning to contact sports.