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Our user asked: "Hi, I'm 23 years old and nearing 7 years since I had ACL reconstructive surgery using my patellar tendon as the graft (I didn't realize it had been that long until now!). My concern is that it still feels like I favor my good leg, and I believe that there is still a noticeable difference between my two quads. While I've always been mindful of this, it's never seemed severe enough to make an appointment over. I've always led an active lifestyle, including activities such as basketball, snowboarding, flag football, and hiking. Aside from the expected occasional discomfort caused by patellar tendinitis, I have been able to participate in all these activities with full confidence in my repaired knee. That being said, I'm concerned that I'm not distributing my weight evenly, and that it could cause issues later on with with my back or my good leg. I would really appreciate any advice you could offer as to how to remedy this, be it quad strengthening exercises, balancing exercises, or anything else you may suggest. Thanks a lot for your help.
Ask a PT Response: "For my patients that have issues similiar to yours, I would have them perform a lot of single leg exercises ie. squats, leg press, hops, calf raises, toe raises, terminal knee extension, ham curls in bridging with exericse ball, etc.. Definitely would also conduct a postural and functional analysis of patient performing various activites to determine what else may be contributing to imbalance (ie. flexibility, ROM, joint mobility, posture, etc.). For a specific task, I would break the task into parts and have patient train in parts and then put it all together and have patient perform the whole activity (ie. jumping/landing). I hope this helps."
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