It has been 2 years since my ACI surgery.
Here are the things I’m able to do:
Running (walk/jog 10 min/mile for 3 miles)
Walking (no limitations or pain)
Hiking (no limitations; minimal pain on steep terrain)
Yoga (any posture; no limitations on knee bending)
Walk up and down stairs with no issues ( I don’t even think about my knee going up and down stairs anymore. For over a year I used to think about each step and concentrate of flexing my quad and making sure my leg was stable before taking a stair)
Things I can’t do:
On leg squat (on bad leg; this causes pain in my injury site and I feel unstable)
Hop on one leg
Let me explain a little more about running. I started running in June (about 22 months post op). By running I mean very slowly jog for about a minute at a time with walking in between. I really noticed the weakness in my leg when I did this even though I work it out regularly. My gait also feels different. I feel like I run differently on my left leg. It’s almost like I have a slight limp. I feel a sharp pain if my knee bends a certain degree and I push off with it so I have compensated. I’m not sure this is the best for me because I worry that I am not running correctly. Nonetheless, I have been experimenting and slowly upping the distance and the pace. Currently I can run about 2 miles non-stop at 10 minute/mile pace with minimal pain. When I run/walk I have gone 3.5 miles as my longest distance.
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| No problems sitting like this! |
I am not sure I will keep running. For the last 30 days I have not run at all. The reason for this is I have been in India at a yoga teacher training course to get my 200-hr yoga teacher certification. I have class about 12 hours a day and do physical yoga for about 3-4 hours a day. So this program doesn’t leave much time for running. I have found yoga extremely helpful in my recovery. Especially balancing on my bad leg. This has helped me tremendously to build back the strength and flexibility that I lost during the recovery. I have no limitations concerning yoga. My bad knee is just as flexible as my good knee. However, I do notice differences in strength and balance. It is much easier to balance on my good leg and my bad leg tires sooner. One of the benefits of yoga is that every pose is done on the left and right side so you are isolating parts of the body and staying balanced. So for poses on the left side I am not able to “cheat” with my right leg by helping like I many subconsciously do during squats.
Even after 2 years I am still working on building back strength. There is still a difference in quad size between my left and right leg. It’s probably not noticeable to other people when they look at me but I can feel the difference in definition when I place my hand on my quads.
After my course I may experiment once again with running. I think one of the most important things to know about ACI is that recovery continues for years after the surgery. I have heard the graft continues to harden for a five year period after surgery.
