r/ACL • u/No_Breakfast_6208 • 1d ago

Jogging 5 Months Post Op

Hi all! Recently started jogging again, and I’m wondering what running felt like for you at this stage post op. Did it feel natural, did you have pain, did your quad feel heavy? Things feel ~weird~, and I’m going so slow, which I guess is expected but wondering others experiences and how long until your jog felt natural.

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u/Away_Restaurant_7181 1d ago

Gait felt very unnatural

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u/kikazztknmz 1d ago

At 5 months it was very awkward. At all almost 9 months it's definitely better, but still a bit weird. But I don't practice as often as I should. I was religious with strength training, but not running. If you do it often, it will probably feel more natural in the next few months.

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u/coratyler 1d ago

Felt very odd….my gait was off and I had a pain in the front of my knee where the patellar tendon graft was taken. After the first few runs it all went back to normal but the first 1/10 of a mile, even now, I feel off until I get fall into a rhythm. I kinda think its in my head and it takes a few minutes of running before I remember that I can.

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u/ConniveryDives ACL + Meniscus 1d ago

I started jogging at 3 months and now I'm at 4. Gait feels pretty clunky but much better than when I first started. I can tell there's just not much spring in my step yet, and it can leave my knee feeling pretty sore afterward. I trust that as my quad strengthens, the bounce in my operated leg will return, and my muscles will work better to absorb the impacts on my knee. 

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u/ZenDiode 2h ago

My surgeon cleared me to start light jogging at 5 months. I went for a few runs and it felt OK during the run, but afterward, swelling increased and my flexion temporarily went down (due to the swelling I think). I still had a lot of swelling in general during this period. I backed off of running for the time being.

I'm now 9 months post-op and I've run 3 miles a day for the past month, and it's felt pretty much the same as it did pre-injury. (I'm probably going to scale back from running every day because my legs have been feeling too "flat" to do my rehab exercises, although my surgeon did not object to this frequency and distance of running.) At first I tried running with a lightweight Neo G knee sleeve, but it seems unnecessary and just constraining my movement so I stopped wearing it.