How to Make ACL Recovery Faster

This post, and this company, were built for those who seek answers. For those who want to put together one heck of a comeback story, here are 9 ways to recover faster from ACL injuries.

1. Make Your Intentions Known

Throughout the rehab process, it's important to follow the guidance of your physical therapists and doctors. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't make your intentions known.

Let them know you want to speed up the recovery timeline and that you're willing to do whatever it takes. The normal operating mode of physicians and PTs is to be conservative (rightfully so), so if you'd like to be more aggressive in your recovery, you'll have to constantly remind them.

Consistently ask when you can do the activities you'd like to do and if there are any modifications that may be appropriate in the interim. You might end up being a little bit of a pain, but they need to know your intentions.

2. Mindset

Mindset is one of the most overlooked factors in faster ACL recovery. If you want to speed up recovery, you'll have to make it a top priority each and every day.

You'll have to believe deep down that you can come back bigger, faster, and stronger. And when it's time to really test the knee, you'll have to remove all doubt from your mind.

Psychological barriers have been linked to return-to-sport rates and re-injury risk. If you can get your mind right, you'll be well on the path to a faster, more successful ACL recovery.

3. Prehab

This one's easy to describe: Get yourself feeling as close to 100% as possible before surgery.

Work with whoever you have to in order to increase range of motion, build strength, and decrease pain before surgery. All of the research shows that the preoperative condition of the patient is one of the biggest predictors of post-operative success.

If you want to make ACL recovery faster, focus as hard on the prehab as you plan to on the rehab.

4. Understand Pain

This is a big one, and it's unfortunately not often communicated well by PTs and physicians.

If you take small amounts of pain too seriously, you could affect your body's ability to develop confidence in movement again, slowing down recovery. If you don't take pain seriously enough, you risk doing more harm than good.

Here's our basic guideline on pain:

Ask yourself how it rates on a 1-10 scale. If it's 3/10 or below, it's worth exploring the sensation further. Continue doing the movement causing the pain in a controlled fashion.

If pain elevates above 3/10, stop the activity for the day. If pain starts going below 3/10, you're showing the body it doesn't have to ring the "pain alarm" for this movement anymore — a huge key to making ACL recovery faster.

5. Understand Mechanics

No matter what exercise or movement you're doing, do your best to understand the mechanics:

• What is the movement supposed to accomplish?
• What is it supposed to look like to accomplish this task?
• How would the movement look if I was doing it wrong?

If you want to speed up the ACL recovery process, you need to get the absolute most out of every rep of every exercise you perform. If you don't understand these basics, keep asking questions until you do.

6. Diet

In order to repair itself faster, your body needs the necessary building blocks. Imagine being a sculptor trying to make a masterpiece without any of the key components — it won't go well.

If you really want to optimize the ACL recovery process, we recommend working with a nutritionist experienced in putting together nutrition plans for athletes during rehab.

7. Optimize Sleep

Another often overlooked part of ACL recovery is sleep. Sleep is when the majority of the body's basic repair processes occur.

You need to make sure you get enough of it and that it's high quality. At a minimum, aim for 7-9 hours of sleep.

Also, try to get a feel for the quality of your sleep:

• Are you waking up often at night?
• Do you dream? (This indicates you're getting into deep sleep, which is a good sign)

If you really want to dive deep, look into buying a high-tech sleep tracker to analyze quality. Once you have a baseline, see if you can modify things (environment, schedule, etc.) to improve.

8. Incorporate Technology

Throughout human history, technology has made things faster. Use it to your advantage to do the same with your ACL recovery.

The best technologies should accelerate the processes by which your body naturally repairs itself. It should also incorporate an active (you are using your brain to drive movement) rather than a passive (the technology or another person is moving your body) component.

Our favorite technology to speed up recovery from ACL surgery is a direct current electrical stimulation device, the Volta X.

The Accelerate ACL team has perfected programs that use the technology to increase range of motion, build strength, and relieve pain at a faster rate than people normally see utilizing traditional physical therapy programs alone.

9. Consistency

Consistency, consistency, consistency.

Consistency.

No matter what you're trying to accomplish in life, consistency is the key. Those who apply disciplined effort over longer periods of time put themselves in a great position to succeed.

It really is that simple. Apply each of the ways to make ACL recovery faster listed above in a consistent manner, and I can guarantee you will recover faster than if you're not consistent with your efforts.