Okay, here goes. There are two ways you need to heal after a major surgery: Physical and psychological. While all of us are different, in my case, no matter what I did on a physical level, until I recovered from the emotional scars, the healing process was significantly stalled. Here are the things I had to come to terms with:
1. I was hurt while doing something that I loved.
2. I was hurt when I was with someone who always made me feel safe. I tore my ACL when I was taking a class with an instructor who is also a very close friend. There was always something about his presence that made me feel invincible. Imagine my surpirse when I discovered that I was not.
3. I was hurt when my skiing skills were at their highest, but my fitness level was at its lowest. When we first moved to Summit County, I was in skier's fantasy land. Although I have a sport fitness studio, my teaching style is very hands on. After class, given the option of doing my own workout or skiing, guess what I chose?
No matter how much training I did, while I was still obssesed with these issues, nothing happened. Even when Loveland started blowing snow in October, I refused to go out in early season. (however, given some of the accidents that happened to some of the instructors on Epic last October/November, that is posbably a good thing)
Finally, in early December, Weems from Epic contacted me to come out an play. he even came down to Breck to ski with me. Here is some Weem's Wisdom:
* I told him that I felt as id I has dropped down to being a Level 3 skier. He told me that I was actually a Level 6 with a Level 3 attitude. Apparently, this is coomon after injury.
* By all means start out on easy trails, but don't baby yourself too much. Find the "blue" in every green, and the black in every blue. You can even do this in small doses. For example, when we got out of the cafeteria, instead of letting me exit through the flat section, we went down a small part of the trail that had a somewhat steep pitch. It was only about three feet log, but it was a start.
* "The past is not the future." This is important to realize. I found myself afraid of feeling confident, because confidence had lead me to cockiness, and cockiness had lead me to injury. Weems said to remember that the past is not the future.
Now that I have rambled on ad infinatum about mental healing, I will get to the physical rehab program. At the risk of being called a spammer, I am going to give you a chapter excerpt for this. Please keep in mind that this is simply becasue I am too lazy to write the whole thing out. ;) However, if anyone finds this offensive, please let me know.
The ACL Rehab Plan: How Lisa Got Her Groove Back
Your first priority after ACL surgery is regaining range of motion. While static stretching is definitely required, in my case, dynamic flexibility was the most helpful. Many of my abdominal exercises involve:
• Lying on my back
• Heels on the stability ball
• Flexing or extending either one leg or both while performing crunches or upper body rotations
Prone exercises on the ball were also extremely helpful, particularly the knee pull :
• Lie prone with your belly on the ball and hands on the floor, feet off the floor.
• Inhale to prepare
• Exhale as you bend your knees and try to bring them towards your chest.
• Keep your abdominals drawn in
• Focus on the ball
• Inhale to straighten your legs.
This was extremely helpful, because you can see you progress as the knee regains range of motion.
As I began to heal, I decided to “amp up” my post rehab routine. My intuition told me that I needed a program that used dynamic range of motion exercises as opposed to static stretching. At the recreation center, I would use the elliptical machine, followed by the recumbent bicycle. I also included lateral walking on the treadmill, which provided dynamic strength for the adductors and abductors. This was important for preventing re-injury of the MCL and meniscus.
• Set the machine on an incline
• Stand sideways with your left foot uphill and your right foot downhill.
• Hold the rails until you are confident about your balance.
• Start the machine at a slow pace.
• Step up with your left foot.
• Bring your right foot up to meet it.
• Perform for five minutes.
• Pause machine and switch sides.
Also, as I said in the Fitness thread, be sure to work your hamstrings really hard! Good Luck and keep the faith!
