Post-op squat and what the non-post-op squat can reveal.

Above is a member of Portland's Arena Football League team, the Thunder.   The player in this video is 40 days post-op Menisectomy and ACL reconstruction.  The knucklehead photo bombing is me.  What is in the video, as well as what occurred after is illuminating.  The first is simple: this is what happens when you have a progressive surgeon and a hard-working athlete. A lot of times we don't have this range of motion (patient/PT) and if we do, the athlete doesn't have the opportunity to express it functionally (MD/PT).  When the patient is willing to work hard, and the physician restricts activities by applying surgical, biomechanical and physiological considerations (and is confident in the PT), rather than CYA considerations, return to functional activity, and indeed play, can occur much more quickly.  

Point #2: The person taking this photo is another Thunder player being treated for an ankle sprain.  After seeing this, he pointed out that he was unable to perform a full squat.  Try as he might, he was unable to do it without significant cueing and an Airex under his heels (he has full dorsiflexion PROM and AROM; his limitations are motor control with posterior translation of the pelvis and limited hip mobility).  The takeaway is that here is someone who makes his living as an athlete, yet still has significant limitations in a very fundamental movement.  How many athletes are out there that lack good basic movement skills but have other capacities that allow them perform at a high level, and how much better--and injury resistant--would they be if we gave them those movement skills back?