Meet Ann. She is a 68 year old retired vet and had one bad skiing accident which caused her to tear her ACL (one of the knee ligaments). And of course, he had ACL surgery.
Anne West
After that operation, of course he went to physical therapy. While he was helping her at first, he came to a point she was stuck. If she had been sedentary, her recovery – albeit incomplete – would have been quite good. But Ann was not sedentary. She was very active. So, for her purposes, she reached the limit of what physical therapy can do and decided to start working with us to regain her full function.
And he took it again, he succeeded. In fact, not only did it regain full function, but she became stronger than before the accident. How did he do it? This is exactly what we will talk about in this article. But if you want to hear it directly from Ann, check out this 8-minute video:
If you want help with your own knee pain (even if nothing else has worked), we have a special program called “The Knee Pain Reversal Program.” To see if you qualify for this program, simply fill out the application form our home page. This does not obligate you to anything. It just sets up a quick 10-15 minute chat where we discuss your situation and see if we can help you. No pressure or sales.
Ann’s life before
Ann loved to be active. As you read earlier, she’s a skier, curler (a true Canadian!), kayaker, and even a group fitness instructor.
So when she had her skiing accident in 2021, she diligently went to physical therapy and gradually restored her function. But not completely.
For about a year and a half after the surgery, although she had completed physical therapy, she was immobile extremely reluctant to ski (Indeed, at one point, she told her coach, Meagan, that she swears off skiing) and when she curled up, she would have knee pain for a few days afterwards.
She didn’t like that. She knew the physical therapy had done its best, but there were still those limitations and reminders that her knee wasn’t perfect yet.
A couple of years before that, he had seen my ad on Zoomer, signed up for my newsletter, and been receiving it ever since. He has also read many of our customer case studies, including:
…and others.
So she reached out to me, explaining her situation. We talked and set her up with her personal trainer, Meagan.
Ann’s exercise program
I’m a fan of precision in exercise prescription. We do not have a generic “knee pain” program because a generic program will have generic results:
- Some people will improve
- Some people will get worse
- Some people will remain unchanged
The assessments allow us to personalize each client’s exercise program. So, during Ann’s initial assessment, Meagan recognized it differences between her healthy knee and her bad knee. So we had a model and a goal for what Ann had to go back to.
There were obvious power deficits between the good and evil sides. There was also an obvious range of motion difference between the good and bad knee.
Knowing these details (and more), Meagan was able to create a program for Ann that restored full function to the injured side.
Ann’s exercise program
A common mistake people (including professionals) make when trying to rehabilitate knees is myopically looking at the knee, and only the knee. Only 1 muscle is trained: the quadriceps (the front of the thigh). They ignore basic anatomy (and logic): that there are many more muscles around the knees, including:
- The hamstrings (the back of the thighs)
- Adductors (inner thighs)
- Calves (behind and below the knee)
- Tibialis anterior (the muscle at the front of the shin)
Besides, when one joint is injured, it doesn’t just affect that one joint. Also affects adjacent joints. That’s how it is The muscles surrounding the hips also need to be strengthened. This is a truly comprehensive knee rehabilitation program.
And Megan addressed all of that, with exercises like:
…and others.
Of course, there are a million different exercises for each of these muscle groups. Why did Meagan choose these in particular? I analyze the 6 exercise selection criteria in this detailed 10 minute video.
Ann has been with us for almost 2.5 years now, so this is just a snapshot of one of her programs. She had many programs during her time with us.
Plus, if you just read about the exercises, you’ll miss the “secret sauce» of the exercise program – the progress modeland the workout-to-workout adjustments made based on Ann’s progress from her previous training session, energy/fatigue levels and more. Despite all this, no exercise program should be a static programwhere you do the same exercises for the same weights, sets and reps every time. An exercise program must be dynamic, intelligent, purposeful, and systematically change exercise variables to move the client forward… as opposed to randomly changing the schedule whenever you want, without rhyme or reason… like many personal trainers do.
Results Ann
Ann’s results were nothing short of amazing. After only 6 months of working with Meagan, she had a follow up appointment with her surgeon and he seriously impressed!
- He had great range of motion (ROM) almost everywhere.
- Her squat ROM was almost identical to her pre-injury range of motion. Since then, she ROM is completely normalized in the squat.
- He even told her she had great thighs and to keep doing what she’s doing.
Apart from that, her legs are now equal in strength. Someone trying to examine her legs would never know she had a knee injury or which knee was injured.
He also has better balance, which he notices when curling and skiing. Moreover, she The fear of falling is much lower.
In addition, her “gym strength” is greatly improved.
- He went from doing single leg deadlifts with no weight to 25 pounds.
- Went from partial range of motion squat to full range of motion, in broken squats without weight, for split squats with 20 pounds, and goblet squats with 47.5 pounds.
Challenges along the way
Ann’s success is all the more impressive considering the challenges she faced along the way.
- In April 2024 (about 5-6 months after he started working with us), he was diagnosed with osteopenia. It took a long time to diagnose, because well… bone strength is a huge specialty of ours, having written 2 books on the subject.
- In November 2024, she was in a bad car accident and broke both her right arm (in multiple places) as well as her sternum.
But Ann doesn’t give up. Her earlier recovery from the knee injury taught her resilience and she made the same effort to recover from the car accident.
How Ann’s life is different now
How different is Ann’s life now that she is pain free, stronger and has better balance?
- Of course, her The knees are now completely painless and symmetrical. Nothing is off limits. She can curl, exercise and do whatever she wants.
- Despite the fact that he thought he would give up skiing forever, he is back to skiing!
- She is now a better skier than before the accident. Just recently, she skied a little on her skis and was able to get back up without taking her skis off.
- Psychologically and emotionally, he feels he has gained resilience. If she can bounce back from a bad knee injury and a car accident, it opens up a lot of possibilities for her.
- In addition to all her other activities, Ann is an avid cyclist. In the past, when he took long walks (over 80 km), he ended up with a sore back. This year she finished all her walks with no back pain and less fatigue.
- And a HUGE one for people her age: she can get off the ground without using her hands!
Overall, we are very proud of Ann, her work ethic and her courage. As previously mentioned, if you want help with your own knee pain (even if nothing else has worked), we have a special program called “The Knee Pain Reversal Program.” To see if you qualify for this program, simply fill out the application form our home page. This does not obligate you to anything. It just sets up a quick 10-15 minute chat where we discuss your situation and see if we can help you. No pressure or sales.
