Rehabilitation & training

Day 44, the seventh week

Rehabilitation and training twice a day take most of my time and keep me busy.

The extension of the movement range in my knee joint is very painful in my case as the knee joint capsule has shrunk. As many as two or three times a week I undergo a rehabilitation procedure during which we struggle to bend the knee and improve proprioception.

Proprioception is the unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation arising from stimuli within the body itself. As far as the knee joint is concerned proprioception is the inner perception in the knee and the cruciate ligament is responsible for that. Due to the fact that my ligament was replaced with a transplanted one my perception is temporarily limited. I feel it as if I lack full control over how my knee works, just as if it was wooden.

When it comes to regaining mass and strength of my leg muscles I work out at the gym: leg press, half squats and standing calf raise.
The most important thing is I can finally warm-up properly before training by cycling and using an OrbiTrek exercise machine. This week 30 minutes twice a day: a bike and an OrbiTrek in turns.

Despite daily exercising, the worst are mornings. The knee is not stretched and only after some time of warm-up am I able to bend it and walk.

For the time being all the exercises have to be done in so called closed-chain way which means my leg must have a support in bending phase. Because of that lots of exercises including running have to wait before I am able to do them.

In the seventh week from the surgery I am independent: I move around without crutches or orthosis, I drive a car and I can train. Only 25 degrees’ bend left ahead of me and I can move on to open exercises, and then it can be said I am really back in the game!

Day 36

The beginning of week 6
Summing up rehabilitation results:

1.105 degree knee bend (the last 10 degrees painless) – knee bend worked out with the splint and manual therapy.
2.I walk without crutches and stabilizer.
3.I exercise on the stationary bike and OrbiTrek.
4.I walk normally including climbing stairs.
5.I drive a car.
6.We start a new training scheme. J
There is much to be done ahead of me!