Lauren Brooks Fitness

Almost 7 months ago I tore my left ACL.  You can read the entire story on my previous blog posts of Part 1, 2 , and 3 .  So here I am on my own path doing my own strength and rehab.  I have really surprised myself with what I have been able to do without having the surgery, which I'll go into in a minute.  My knee is not perfect and even though I haven't been doing any traditional rehab, you would probably never know that I am missing something.  The one thing that I did have to give up was Krav Maga because the stability of my knee just wasn't ready for the lateral movements and unpredictable forces.   Things could change in the future, but as of now everything feels strong and steady.  Here are a few things I have been doing in order to regain the strength of my knee without any surgery.  I immediately started doing Single Leg Squats using a TRX or Rings for support in order to slowly strengthen the muscles around my knee.  I continued do...

It's been almost 11 weeks since my knee injury.  Since getting the MRI results of an ACL rupture, I decided to see a different Orthopedic doctor for a second opinion.  He just so happens to be an avid snowboarder, which is right up my alley.   In fact this Dr. works with mainly athletes from basketball players, rock climbers, martial artists, to skiers.  Just the person I needed for this. Today he tested the laxity in both of my knees for the second time with an Arthrometer.  Apparently the torn ACL does have a slightly higher degree in laxity, however, not a huge difference compared to the typical tear.  He attributes this to the kettlebell training I continued to do throughout the whole process. I showed him a few kettlebell exercises I was doing along with the full range of motion squats I've been working on.  He was impressed that I was able to do as much as I could and encouraged me to keep doing it.  We discussed how important it is for ...