Can Sprint Run With a Torn ACL?

Anterior Cruciate Ligament

Your ACL joins your thighbone and shinbone and is found in your knee. By keeping your shinbone from shifting or translating forward during activities like jogging, it stabilizes your knee.

Your ACL may be harmed by a fall, a twisting motion, or a direct blow to the knee. A partial tear, also known as a grade-two sprain, or a complete rupture, also known as a grade-three sprain, can occur when the ACL is strained. In severe circumstances, your ACL and other knee ligaments may be sprained, and your meniscus or cartilage may also be torn.

Symptoms

You could suffer discomfort, edema, decreased knee function, and joint instability right after an ACL tear. Depending on the extent of the injury’s damage and your body’s response, these symptoms might range in intensity.

Following a partial ACL tear, some people might not suffer any knee instability, but other people might have knee instability that prevents them from walking or jogging normally. Running soon after ripping your ACL is improbable owing to pain and edema, even if you don’t have knee instability.

Conservative Treatment

Managing pain and swelling as well as recovering normal knee movement, strength, and stability are the objectives of conservative rehabilitation after an ACL tear. Once these objectives are achieved, you can resume your regular running schedule.

On the other side, a 2009 Ullevaal University Hospital study found that even after you’ve finished your rehabilitation, you can still have altered knee function, such as instability or a reduced range of motion. However, following recovery, using a knee brace while running may help eliminate ongoing knee instability and pain.

Complications

90 percent of those with knee instability who do not seek surgical treatment eventually sustain meniscus or cartilage loss, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Your ability to run over the long term may be hampered by secondary ailments like meniscus tears and arthritis that cause further discomfort and swelling.

A decrease in your knee’s range of motion, muscle atrophy or loss, the formation of adhesions or scar tissue, and chronic knee instability are all possible side effects. Therefore, it is crucial to get the right care and wait until your knee has recovered before resuming normal activities if you want to avoid suffering another knee injury while jogging.

Considerations

Your doctor could advise having surgery before you start running again if your symptoms don’t go away during rehabilitation or if you compete in running and have an ACL tear. You might need to temporarily slow down and/or shorten your jogging distance after rehabilitation. Your athletic performance can suffer from any modifications or inefficiencies, such as a little limp in your running gait, which raises your risk of more injuries.