Anyone know good exercises for recovering ACL tear?

[Guest Zach Davis]

Ryan,

I look at any squat, weighted or not as strength training... I also tend to stress the balance, midline stabalization, Posterior chain strength, etc.. of my athletes a lot. I do this by having them do Overhead Squats and Front Squats, even if they are just performed with a 1 pound d-ball, or a broom stick.

I find that lengthening the lever of their arms, or placing a load in front of their necks forces all of the faults in their stability to the surface.

Back squats, deadlifts; these are exercises that we do rarely, and I don't think they have much value in generating small-scale stabilities.

I would be more catious about ladder drills, cariocas, etc... even though, those drills are common in our warm ups.

What I like even more are the Snatch and the Clean & Jerk. Even with just a 10-pound training bar, I can think of no better movements to train coordination of just about every muscle group in the body, midline stablization, and an effecient transition between the phosphogenic and glycolytic pathways.

I disagree with you on the value of monitoring form, still. I want the athlete to reach their end range of flexion... Not under excessive loads, or during their rehab process, but certainly after rehab, when they ar looking to strengthen the knee.

I watch the athlete's knees, lumbar, feet, and overall mass distribution on either side of the central line of travel. If the knee or knees start tracking off of the feet, if the lumbar rounds into flexion, if the feet lift off of either toes or heels, if the distribution of mass goes off-center, this is where I stop them. Before I put weight on ANYONE, I have them do at least 50 squats with just body weight. I like to see their form either improve or begin to fail through the 50 squats, then I determin what their next step is: weight, no weight, assisted.. you name it.

We don't just throw a couple hundred pounds on their backs, watch them crumbe, then laugh. We also don't just line up 50 athletes, tell them all to squat past 90 degrees, and hope for the best. Our highest ration of athletes to a coach right now is 6 to 1, and if we've determined that an athlete is not skilled enough to train in that setting, then we require that they do 1-on-1 with a coach.

That's why I recommended CrossFit Philly... They run a very similar program to ours, and the coaches there are top notch.

Zach

www.trainlikeitmatters.com