This is a video compilation of a patient Mike has been working with 2.5 weeks following a knee partial meniscectomy. Protocols are guidelines which should guide your physical therapist's therapeutic exercise selection, but a protocol does NOT ❌ equal a plan of care. Especially for athletes and more able-bodied individuals, a protocol is not enough load or volume to truly get someone back to sport: think running, jumping, and cutting again in reasonable amount of time. A physical therapist needs to use their knowledge of tissue healing and load management, assess the patient's unique and individual mobility, strength, or motor control impairments, and most importantly listen to the patient in front of them to develop a complete plan of care. . This patient here is former bodybuilder �� with a goal to get back in the gym and return to her active gym routine. That being said, 4 weeks of table exercises only will NOT ❌ get her back to backsquats, deadlifts, and pistol squats I can guarantee you that. Did we start with table exercises day 1? Of course. Then re-assessed her response to load and appropriately increased load throughout her rehab program. . She is 2.5 weeks out here and every single exercise is chosen and progressed EXACTLY FOR HER. ✅Loaded RDL variation chosen to minimize knee flexion ✅Box squats to minimize deeper knee flexion with a knee dominant goblet squat ✅Posterior lunges progressed from split stance lunge ✅Increasing step up/posterior step down height for functional ambulation ✅Lateral lunges NO step as a step resulted in medial compartment discomfort ✅Banded hip work to hit the glutes ✅TKEs for VMO activation ✅Balance/reaction exercises on compliant surfaces for proprioception ✅Calf stretching to help with posterior knee discomfort with end range extension . No protocol is going to do that for you. So find a PT that understands YOU.
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