Returning to training after knee dislocation / multi-ligament ruptures

Pain & Rehab Forum [Moderated]
1

Hi all,

I’m a 48 year old female and 18 months ago I fell off a ladder and dislocated my left knee. I completely ruptured ACL, PCL and LCL with a partial rupture of my MCL. The first three were replaced with donor achilles tendons. I also suffered a tibial plateau fracture - a couple of pins in that. On my left arm I fractured my radial plateau and tore my ulnur tendon (which were repaired with pins and staples). I’ve been seriously rehabbing with a specialist PT since November - getting flexion back in my left knee (about 130 degrees) and building muscle back up in that leg (significant atrophy occured). My rehab has been quite general in nature and I’ve come a long way. At home I’m benching, deadlifting and squating - however nothing too heavy and I feel like I’m ready to start adding more weight (I’ve been progressively overloading but really just with reps and sets).

I guess I’m just seeking some advice if you see any issues with starting the novice progression and given my injury history any advice to keep me safe.

Cheers

2

Hey man, that is quite the story. Glad to hear you are getting back to training. First, I would highly recommend starting with The Beginner Template over the novice linear progress as there is a good case for the implementation of RPE in getting back into full training. What have you recently been doing in training with PT and outside of the gym. My only concern is that there is likely still a deficit side to side in your surgical versus non-surgical leg. Now, you likely can squat and deadlift this away, but I would argue making sure there is some single leg focused work in any program you are going to run would be helpful. Even have an RPE side to side on an exercise like a split squat can help out to ballpark what your weakness is side to side and work towards symmetry.