I am now nearing 25 weeks post-op. It sounds like a long time but it still has not been six months since surgery. However, my strength conditioning and general activity have been on the increase. Cycling (stationary and free wheeling), weights, lunges, balance work and some thing some people would call the Cliffy Young shuffle have all been part of the repertoire.

I had Iain McLean check how I was going with the knee. I was quite encouraged when he said, ‘Rock solid’. And have since been trying to do everything I can to restore strength in the muscles around the knee with special attention to the VMO muscle.

The VMO is the teardrop shaped muscle on the quad towards the inside of the knee. This is quite important for ACL injuries as it helps stabilise the knee joint and patella.

I was most excited when I was told I could include forward and backward jumping in my exercise regime. This doesn’t sound like much. But when you go from being very tentative on your injured knee to flying through the air, it is quite exhilirating.

I have know advanced to the Cliffy Young shuffle and hope to stretch out a bit further over the coming days. I fell my cycling fitness is getting better with the short sessions (20-40mins) I am doing and will look to increasing this up to 50+ mins in the coming week. I think I need to get bike setup checked out though.

More news soon.