Hey guys, just want to keep you updated on how my ACL rehab is going.  As most of you know, I am still in physical therapy twice a week.  This coming Thursday marks 8 weeks, which my PT tells me means we get to start having some fun.  Up until now, I've been doing some pretty basic quad/hamstring strengthening exercises: straight leg raises, hamstring curls, short arc quads, mini squats, leg press, etc.  Now we get to kick it up a notch.

After running through all of my normal exercises this morning, Mia (my PT), brought over the bosu ball with a big smile across her face.  I too was excited, because I love a challenge and this little bosu ball was getting me out of my normal routine.  I am familiar with bosu's because I often use them at work with my personal training clients.  She first had me stand on the flat side, balancing with two feet.  Once I had that down, she had me balance with my affected leg.  WOW.  I could not keep the thing stable.  My muscles were firing like crazy just to keep the thing still (which I figured was relative because of my atrophy).  Then I switched to my unaffected leg and didn't waver at all.  This was a great measuring stick for how far I still need to go.  Once I started getting comfortable with the 1 leg balance drills, we moved on to 1 leg balance with mini squats.  These were INTENSE!  I was struggling after just 2 or 3 of these.  Balancing on the affected leg took a lot out of me, and to add squats into the mix really challenged me.  It is the first time I've truly felt limited in what I could do.  The eccentric phase of the squat was especially difficult because my legs were literally trembling as I went down. 

This is similar to what I was doing, but I was doing 1/4 squats.

Today's challenge is just another step on the road to recovery.  My range of motion is great, and most importantly, I'm feeling great.  Definitely not pushing it, but I'm confident I'm ahead of schedule.  Thanks for reading, I'll try to post a video of said event soon!