Your ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament, is a band of connective tissue in your knee joint that keeps your femur and tibia aligned and helps maintain stability when you rotate your knee. Roughly 200,000 Americans injure this ligament each year. If you damage your ACL, your doctor and/or physical therapist will likely recommend exercises designed to help in the healing process.
Basics
Although some people experience ACL injuries while participating in contact sports, most individuals experience this type of injury while involved in non-contact sports or activities, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Common body motions associated with ACL damage include sidestepping, pivoting, rapid deceleration, awkward planting of your foot and generally uncoordinated movements. In roughly 50 percent of cases, people who damage their ACL also damage associated knee ligaments and other structures such as the cartilage on their bone ends or the cushioning wedge of knee cartilage called the meniscus.
Therapeutic Exercises
If you injure your ACL, you need to perform certain exercises to retain your range of motion and strengthen your leg. Exercises commonly used soon after injury include straight-leg raises, heel slides and quad sets. After healing of your injury progresses to the point where you can carry your own body weight, available exercise options include heel raises, bridges, glute sets, prone hamstring curls and side-lying leg lifts. Your doctor and physical therapist will help you determine which of these exercises work best for your particular condition.
Preventive Exercises
You can also use certain exercises to prevent ACL injuries from occurring in the first place, according to the American Council on Exercise. Potential options include one-legged hops, two-legged jumps and single-legged balanced squats. They also include specialized exercises called the mirror matrix, 3-D matrix hop and 3-D matrix lunge. Consult your doctor and physical therapist to learn more about these exercises and how you can use them as part of a preventive plan.
Considerations
In some cases, exercise and physical rehabilitation are enough to restore your knee to a functional state. However, in other cases, you may need to use a supportive knee brace or undergo surgical repair of your damaged ACL. Factors that make you a likely candidate for surgery include instability of your knee joint and damage to other knee tissues or structures. Factors that can decrease your need for surgery include limited tearing of your ACL, lack of knee instability and a willingness to give up sports or activities that increase your knee damage risks.
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