Physio

These are the knee and leg exercises I've been given to do. Nice drawings, eh? I love his big hair. Taken from the rather lovely blue physio book the hospital gave me. The exercises below are for the first two weeks after the ACL reconstruction operation.

Calf stretch. "Move the foot up and down from the ankle to maintain good circulation in the leg." Easy-peasy.

Extension exercises. "Sit on a firm surface and fully straighten your knee. To help the knee go straighter, tighten the front thigh muscles. Pull your foot towards your face and at the same time brace your knee down onto the floor. Hold for 5-10 seconds." This isn't as easy as it looks / sounds.

Knee bends. "Slide heel up and down a firm surface, bending and straightening the knee." This isn't all that easy, either. To begin with, my knee didn't go much past 90 degrees, and it still doesn't go all the way, I think because of the swelling and general stiffness.

Standing knee bend. "Stand upright, bend operated knee, bring heel to your bum. Lower the foot slowly back into a straight position." I was told not to do this one striaght away, because there's no support for the leg. Frustratingly, I can't currently get my leg past 90 degrees, and I feel tightness in the front thigh, knee and hamstrings.

Static hamstring stretch. "With the knee very slightly bent, push the heel into the floor and hold for 5-10 seconds." I feel this one in my now-puny hamstrings.

Thigh co-contraction exercises. "With your knee bent over a bottle [preferably a full 2 litre fizzy drink bottle or something, mine's Sainsbury's own brand cola. Nice] wrapped in a towel, push the heel down into the floor, and push the knee down into the bottle at the same time, keeping the pressure on the heel. No knee movement should occur. Hold for 5-10 seconds." This involves contracting the quads and hamstrings at the same time, and is a bit difficult at first...