athELITE Performance Therapy

This is why prehab before ACL surgery matters.

We tested this athlete’s quad and hamstring strength at three different points: before surgery, one month after surgery, and then again recently as he continues working through his rehab.

And the biggest thing that stands out is how much his strength has progressed because we did not wait until after surgery to start building.

A lot of people tear their ACL, schedule surgery, and then spend the time before surgery just waiting around. But that time matters. If you can safely build strength, improve control, restore motion, and go into surgery in a better place, you usually give yourself a much better starting point on the other side.

That does not mean the process is easy, and it definitely does not mean surgery recovery becomes automatic. This athlete also has a great team around him, and that matters a lot. But the work he put in before surgery gave us something to build from instead of starting from zero.

The stronger and more prepared you are going into surgery, the better chance you have of limiting atrophy, restoring strength faster, and progressing more smoothly toward running, jumping, cutting, and eventually returning to sport.

ACL rehab is not just what happens after surgery.

It starts before surgery.

If you are waiting on an ACL reconstruction, do not waste that window. Use it to get your quad, hamstring, hip, and knee as prepared as possible so your post-op rehab has a better foundation.

That is the whole point of prehab.

If you’re not happy with how your ACL recovery/rehab is going, reach out to us.

We would love to see if we would be a better fit for you 🤝