After tripping over your dog’s leash and tearing your ACL, you decide to bite the bullet and get it repaired.
You do six months of physical therapy after surgery and your doctor says you are ready to return to all activities. So off you go to the track and start running again. It goes okay, but your repaired knee “feels funny”—and you may not be imagining it. Recent research indicates that asymmetries between the repaired knee and the other knee may persist for as long as a year after surgery. These findings have researchers exploring the addition of rapid force exercises to post ACL rehab, as these may be more applicable to “real-world” activities. Another outcome of this research is the effect of lingering fear of re-injury which can alter biomechanics for years after surgery.