I am out of action with a PCL knee injury. I have been doing some interesting physical therapy to build up the supporting mussels around my knee. I thought some of you would find this interesting.
This exercise is to teach the nerves better balance, and at the same time exercise the small balance mussels.
What to do: Stand up straight, legs straight but not locked, cross your arms over your chest, close your eyes, and count to ten. Keeping your eyes closed, lift one foot up and count to ten, set that foot down and lift the other foot. Repeat for ten reps on each leg. Try to stay balanced while your foot is up.
I found my good leg had no problems doing this, but my bad leg is not very controlled. The physical therapist said that that happens in an injury.
The next level of work out is to bend forward, hands stretched out, one leg stretched out horizontal. Again, all with your eyes closed. If you do these with your eyes open it is much easier.
I tore my PCL about 8 years ago. For what it’s worth, my sports med. doc. said many high-level athletes perform perfectly well without a functional PCL. It’s the ACL that’s the real problem.
Good thing to do some PT. Before long you’ll be confidently spinning away again.
well old drone the exercises may be harder when you grow older …
closing your eyes mean that your inner ear is in charge … and that is wearing down as you grow older (you tend to use your eyes more to maintain balance).
Closing your eyes, and training the inner ear connection was the point of the exercise. It is just like learning to ride the uni. As you practice it gets easier. It is about making permanent connections with the nerves and the mussels that are used in balancing. It works for any age.
The therapist said that injuries can cause a disconnect with nerves in the area of impact. That certainly rings true with my ability to do the exercise the first couple of weeks. My bum leg was very wobbly. Now it is almost equal to the good leg.
That was interesting. I wonder what units those measurements were for judging his balance? They say that he has a balance to the right of 170, and the average person is 90. 170, 90, what?
