ACL recovery is a tough, grueling process, but many athletes are able to make it out on the other side. My nearly one-year journey back from ACL and meniscus surgery was a difficult, trying process, and it definitely got harder when my meniscus repair failed.
But, I made it through another (challenging but much shorter) recovery and am back to playing soccer at a high level.
Looking back on my recoveries, I often remember mistakes that I wish I could go back and change.
These are the top ACL recovery mistakes I made and how to avoid them.
ACL Recovery Mistake 1: Comparing Yourself to Others
Not all recovery mistakes are physical. In fact, many of them are mental. One of the worst mistakes I made throughout my recover was comparing myself to others. This does not mean you can’t learn from someone else’s experience. It is a good idea to find out about other people’s experiences, but not to measure yours against theirs.
A former teammate of mine tore her ACL around the same time, but had surgery a little before me. She was trying to get back in time for her senior season, which required a 5-month recovery. I, on the other hand, had no college resources and had also torn both my menisci. She could jog at 3 months and was having quite a smooth recovery, while I was still limping at 3 months.
Comparing my progress to hers did not help me. It gave me anxiety and made me upset. Even though we really had far different injuries, it was discouraging to feel so “far behind.” Your recovery is YOUR recovery, it will not be the same as someone else’s and you cannot expect to follow an exact timeline. Benchmarks are helpful, but the most important thing is to discuss your progress with your doctor and physical therapist to determine if it’s acceptable for your injury or not.
2. Overdoing It
This is not new to my ACL injury, but I have a tendency to overdo it. I am able to push past pain and discomfort, and I can push a little too hard. Along your ACL recovery, there are times to push and there are times not to.
While working on range of motion, you will experience a ton of pain that you’ll need to push past. However, when it comes to strengthening you have to be smart. Once I could do something, I hated looking back. I didn’t want to back off lifting or running. Instead of listening to my body, I would stick to my schedule and push past it even when sometimes a rest day would have been better.
3. Lack of patience
Recovering from a surgery is not a process you can rush, especially if you are looking to return to sport. Of course, I knew this the entire time. Still, I did not have enough patience. I would become quickly and easily frustrated or discouraged if I could not move on to a benchmark I wanted to. The time felt like it was just dragging on forever.
During the process, it’s important to remember patience. With the right amount of time and continued effort, I always made it to the next step. I did not physically try to rush, but mentally I was. Consider meditation and mindfulness training to help focus on the presence and what you need to do right now for your recovery rather than itching to move on.
4. Letting Others Talk You Out of a Serious Problem
I always preach listening to your doctors and discussing issues with your PT/doctor. This is definitely true, but if your body tells you something is wrong, listen. I wish I had been a bit more persistent about a problem I was having during recover.
As I detailed in “How I Found Out My Meniscus Repair Failed”, I knew something was wrong several months before my medial meniscus repair fully failed. When I brought up this concern, I was told it was fine, and I wasn’t experiencing pain anymore. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I wish I had insisted on seeing the surgeon or getting an MRI. Yeah, it would have cost me a lot, but it could have saved me a second surgery.
Listen to your doctors and bring up your concerns with them, but if something REALLY doesn’t feel or seem right, get a second opinion or pursue it further.
Common ACL Recovery Mistakes
Those were the 4 biggest mistakes I made during my ACL recovery. As an athlete that regularly saw an experienced physical therapist, I felt I did most of the physical and discipline parts right. But there are other major mistakes a lot of people make when recovering from their ACL surgery such as:
- Staying in bed/ not moving for too long. You have to progress through movement and exercise as you’re allowed. If you keep yourself cooped up in bed too long, you will have an even harder time getting your range of motion and strength back. Find the balance between overdoing it and not dong enough.
- Skipping rehab/appointments. If you want a successful recovery, you have to be zoned in every step of the way. Healing is a long process. To ensure it goes as smoothly as possible, you’ll need to be committed to your rehab and attend all PT and doctor’s appointments.
- Only focusing on one aspect of a range of motion. You cannot only focus on flexion or only on the extension. While it’s vital to get your extension back ASAP, you can’t neglect your flexion. Work on both.
- Not enough time spent strengthening. Strengthening takes several weeks of dedicated focus to make any difference. Don’t rush to plyometrics until you’ve really spent enough time on strength.
- Lack of preparation before surgery. Going into surgery, you need to be mentally and physically prepared. Make sure you have all of the necessities for right after surgery and for recovery and prepare yourself for a painful, frustrating process. Know you CAN get through it, but it will take immense time and effort.
No matter how hard you try, you won’t be perfect during your ACL recovery, and that’s okay. It’s normal to make mistakes or to look back and realize you could have done something a little different. But doing your best to avoid the major ACL recovery mistakes above will help you enjoy a much smoother recovery.