Four months after my ACL surgery, I can say that I’ve started to feel somewhat normal again. I can walk well, and I’ve started running in a straight line without any sharp turns, as well as doing some jumping. Everyday activities such as going up and down stairs or lifting moderately heavy objects have also become easy and feel natural.

I completed one month of sports rehabilitation, and I’m now at the beginning of my second month. During the first month, most of the exercises involved high-resistance bands. After that, we started doing bodyweight exercises such as different types of squats. There were also exercises that didn’t specifically target any muscle, but were focused on restoring the connection between my brain and my knee and helping my brain trust the knee again.

Despite all these improvements, there are still some downsides. When I run for around 700 meters, I sometimes feel a sharp, almost electric-shock-like pain in the front of my kneecap. Sometimes, when I walk quickly for around a kilometer or less, my leg starts to feel stiff and becomes like a heavy piece of wood. I feel like a pirate walking with one normal leg and one wooden leg. 

I don’t know what is causing this, despite the fact that my quadriceps has improved significantly. After measuring it, the difference in size compared to my healthy leg is only about 1 cm, and the strength is almost the same as well. However, I still experience some heaviness in the leg and occasional clicking when I move my knee after keeping it extended for a while.

How can I reduce these symptoms? I’d like to hear from people who have more experience and are further along in their recovery after ACL surgery.

The video is to show the exercises I’m currently doing and also to give hope to people who have recently undergone surgery: with time and proper rehabilitation, almost everything becomes easier and if anyone have a question i will be glad to to answer 🫡

4 Months Post OP: Running, Jumping, but Still Dealing With Some Weird Symptoms