Each person has an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in each of their knees, and this ligament and others help connect the thighbone and shinbone together in the knee. It’s also one of the structures that helps stabilize the knee as you move. This makes it important to movements like walking, running, jumping and more. If you’ve injured your ACL in Havelock, North Carolina, physical therapists in your area have many techniques that can help you heal. One of the most effective of these is therapeutic exercises, and two exercises in particular might be put on your ACL rehabilitation exercise list:
- Prone knee flexion
Flexion is the bending of a joint, and an ACL injury can make it much harder to bend your knee. Physical therapists can help improve your ability to bend your knee by using exercises like the prone knee flexion exercise.
To begin this exercise, lie down on your stomach on the floor or on a bed. You’ll also need to start out with your legs straight. From this starting position, slowly bend your injured knee so that your heel moves toward your buttocks. Your goal should be to bend your knee as far as possible without pain, and you’ll want to hold this position for about five seconds once you reach it. Once the five seconds are up, slowly lower your leg back to the starting position. Then, relax in the start position for a few seconds before repeating these steps until you’ve done 10 repetitions.
- One-leg balancing
Balancing is another task that’s affected by an injured ACL, so physical therapists are likely to include balancing exercises in your ACL rehabilitation exercise list. An example of one of these exercises in the one-leg balancing exercise.
Start this exercise by standing behind a stable chair. This will give you something to hold on to during the exercise. Place both of your hands on the back of the chair and stand with your feet together. Once you’re in this starting position, slowly raise your uninjured leg off the floor by bending it at the knee. This will leave you balancing on your injured leg; try to hold this position for 10 seconds before returning to the starting position. Rest for about a minute after your first repetition and then continue to repeat these steps until you’ve done the exercise five times. As your strength and balance improves, you may be able to do the exercise without the chair and increase the number of reps you’re doing.
Peak Performance offers many other therapy methods for ACL rehabilitation
A list of ACL rehabilitation exercises isn’t the only help you can get at Peak Performance’s Havelock clinic. For us, one type of therapy just isn’t enough, and our personalized therapy plans are built using multiple techniques. These techniques will be selected based on the benefits they can offer you. Some of the methods your plan might include are:
Don’t wait to start getting our help with your ACL injury. Contact us today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
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