From Knee Surgery to 185lb squat in 60-days
A story of determination, and a treatment plan built on trust and consistency
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A question I get all the time.
Is chiropractic rehab helpful after surgery?
The answer is YES.
But, don’t take my word for it— take Sue’s.
Sue was a patient at The Athlete Spot™. Reproduced with her permission.
Some information has been altered to maintain the privacy of our patients.
Sue first came to me in 2021. By now she had been dealing with knee pain and severe limited range of motion for over a year after a squatting incident. It was noticeable that she was not able to fully extend her knee and as a result, she had lost some muscle mass in her thigh.
Sue had been a collegiate soccer player and in her junior year, during one of her games, Sue tore her ACL. As expected, it was surgically repaired. Unfortunately, her rehab was cut short by her coach and she returned to play too soon.
Her knee was never the same. After leaving soccer and transitioning into CrossFit, Sue began rebuilding her knee. She was becoming stronger, and more confident in her knee.
Everything was fine until one day, during a training session, Sue felt a pop in her knee. She stopped her training. Thinking it would be her ACL she sought out medical care. Luckily her ACL was fine, but nobody could figure out what was going on.
Since she didn’t have insurance, she was not able to get any imaging done.
Over the next couple of days, Sue noticed her knee would not extend completely. Even if she tried her hardest. For the next few years, she did what she could to keep her knee from hurting, and only skipped training if the pain was unbearable. She continued to squat, deadlift, run, and perform a variety of elite CrossFit movements with some limitations and pain to maintain her level of fitness, but the pain and the limitations were weighing on her mind.
Over a year and a half went by before she became a patient at The Athlete Spot™. After listening to her story and performing our evaluation, it was evident something (inside the knee) was not allowing full motion. Since she didn’t have health insurance we had to wait to order her MRI.
During this time we used a variety of myofascial therapies, dry needling, and different exercises to minimize her pain and begin building up her quadriceps muscle mass.
Six months later, we were finally able to order an MRI.
Finally. We had some answers. A piece of cartilage had dislodged from her femur and was impeding full lockout during extension. We scheduled an orthopedic consult.
During her orthopedic consult, the surgeon agreed. She was an excellent candidate for a knee arthroscopy. It would be a simple procedure and she would be going home the same day.
DONE.
Within a few days after Sue’s arthroscopy, she was back on the bike moving her knee. Nothing strenuous, just easy movement to get the knee moving.
Eleven days after surgery Sue was back at The Athlete Spot to set up a rehab and recovery plan. Her knee was extending to a full range of motion, and other than a little soreness, her scars were minimal and were healing incredibly well.
It’s important to note that not everyone heals at the same rate, and every tissue has its specific healing rate. Sue’s surgery was minimally invasive and since it was considered a “cleanup” her rate of recovery was expected to be fast.
We decided we would start her rehab after her post-op visit with her ortho. At 14 days post-op, during her post-op visit, she was given the green light by her ortho. The next day we began her rehabilitation program.
The following is the shell and general principles for Sue’s knee rehabilitation according to her level of fitness, muscle health, and compliance week to week.