Minor knee injury -- ACL

So I think I hurt my knee last Tuesday. I'm pretty sure it's the ACL, but it's really really minor. It doesn't bother me really, except for a slight pain while walking (especially on uneven ground), and I really feel it when I pull my heel out of my shoe. WebMD says that if this is the case, I should probably be excercising it to build up my knee to help strengthen the joint. Says after two weeks of excercise, I'm good to go.

I'm a big cyclist -- would riding the bike be good for the knee? Anybody had a minor ACL injury like this and what did you do?

I know you're all gonna tell me to see a doctor, but chances are: I won't. I know what it is, and know what the doctor will tell me.

Thanks for any advice!!!

I had very little pain when I tore my ACL. The only major pain was due to torn cartlidge in my knee. I had a friend in highschool that tore his ACL in football and went on to win a state championship in wrestling before having the corrective surgery. I would be very careful b/c the lack of pain doesn't mean that there is a lack of major injury.

Lack of pain with and ACL injury usually means you completly snapped it, or its not very serious.

Thanks dsmalls and D-Money -- I don't think it's very serious at all. I know it's not snapped, and would highly doubt that it is the cartilidge. I know it's the ligament, and I know it's not serious.

But would bicycling be good for it or not? I would think it would be good because of the consistent movement, straight up and down.

When I was rehabing my ACL I was on the bike everyday I rehabed. Usually first thing I did to warm it up before all the *pain and anguish, then usually ended on the stair climber.

*rehab with my physical theripist

I'm not a doctor but when mine snapped I really had no pain either. Did a triathlon the next day, even. No swelling or anything. However, I quickly found that sometimes when I'd land jumps it'd just give out. I knew something was wrong.

As long as you can still do stuff on it, hell, I say go for it. My problem was I simply couldn't do everything. I went nearly the whole season with periodic falls because the stupid thing would just give out on me. Irritating as heck, but surgery in the fall and I was back on the water easily early next season.

So yeah, if it's just a tear you can strengthen the muscles around it and should be good to go. Cycling won't do that, but the gym will.

Yes, cycling will help you to keep your range of motion and help prevent your knee from getting stiff. If you want to build up the strength, do leg lifts. Part of my rehab also was walking fast on a treadmill.

When I tore my ACL it hurt for a little while, but nothing real serious at all. I didn't think it was anything either. I put off going to the doctor until one day at work my knee gave out on me just walking down the hall. The doc told me my options were to rehab for a little while and probably never be able to wakeboard at the level I do without surgery, or have the surgery and be good to go. I opted for surgery because I still love to ride and try new things. It's been 2 years now and I feel 100%.

Please don't take this the wrong way but to me it sounds like you don't know what you are talking about. I would, therefore, definitely go see the doctor and let him decide what you should do. You said that you probably won't because you know what it is but I really do not have confidence in your medical judgement. How do you know it's the ACL and not the PCL, MCL, LCL, meniscus or a combination of some or all of the above?

Anyway, like I said: go see the doctor. You don't want to mess with your knee. If there is instability in your knee, even if there's no pain right now, it will likely only get worse. The instability will just let you tear up your knee even more. I tore my PCL a few years ago and didn't really know it. I had very little pain and just a little bit of an uncomfortable feeling at times. I let it go and continued to play soccer and snowboard. Well, after a month or so, it got to where I couldn't even lift my foot behind me. I went to the doctor and found I merely had a partial tear of the PCL. I went to PT and after a few months it was almost back to normal. It's still not 100% though because apparently, I tore up the cartilage a bit and my knee always hurts now after hard landings or any other hard use. I suspect it will only get worse, over time, until I let someone poke around in my knee and "clean it up." It really sucks because I favor that knee and it hinders my switch riding. I could have avoided all the trouble (and the inevitable future surgery) if I had just gone in when it first happened.

BTW, I don't think bike riding will specifically help your knee that much. You really need to work on a good balance between your quads and hamstrings whereas the bike favors the quads. You also need to work on stabilizing the areas around the knee to avoid injury. This includes hips (all 4 directions), ankles, and all the little muscles that the bike's very limited and controlled motion won't work.

Actually mine wasn't unstable at all, but I agree with Salmon Tacos, go see a doctor!!!!

Guys- thank you all for the information. I went for a bike ride last night and my knee performed, but not very well -- especially when I stood up out of the saddle. Today, it's really achy, particularly on the full extension forward. And now the limping has begun.

I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, which is why I was hesitant to go to the doctor. I don't usually go unless I KNOW something is wrong (otherwise I'd be there all the time). But I just made an appointment. Thanks for all the advice.

I am amazed to hear so many responses about torn ACL's being not incredibly painful. when I tore mine, I damaged other structures as well (torn meniscus, bone contusions), but it was insanely painful! I knew right away that something was really really messed up and was screaming like crazy. The swelling was significant and couldn't walk for a long time. I tore it on Memorial Day wknd, and I just had surgery a few days ago, July 16th. Anyway, hope your knee gets taken care of

Kevin,

It probably depends on how you tear it and what else you damage. It sounds like yours got worked pretty good.

If you tear the ACL mid ligament, you won't have any pain. The ligament that will give you alot of grief if stretched or torn is the Medial Collateral since it is attached to the medial Meniscus.
Many times pain can be caused by the Femoral condyles mashing against the meniscus or tibia plateau as what you did, *Kevin McGuirk (ktmwakeboarder)
Cal- if you really wanna test your knee for the ACL, you can try pivoting on your bad knee. If it gives out ... then you'll have a pretty good idea if the ACL is completely torn. But if you're already guarding the way you move, it's not going to work. But like ST and the others....it's better to have it checked out before you cause more damage.