The main goal after knee surgery is to help you return to your normal activity and function. After surgery, the muscles in your leg will likely be weak, and your physical therapist will prescribe exercises to help you improve the strength in your hips, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calf muscles.
After your knee surgery, you must protect your knee from external forces that may place high levels of stress through your knee joint. Shear forces, like ones that abnormally pull your shin forward or sideways, can disrupt your knee ligaments while they are healing after surgery. This disruption may cause re-injury of your ligaments and delay your recovery. In a worst-case scenario, re-injury to your knee ligaments may require you to have your knee surgery again to repair the damage.
So how do you protect against unwanted forces going through your knee joint while performing straight leg raising exercises? Is there a way to increase the amount of weight you are using during straight leg raises while still guarding against shear forces that may injure your healing knee ligaments?
In this step-by-step article, you will learn about the proper way to increase resistance to your straight leg raising exercises while still protecting your healing ligaments against unwanted stress that may re-injure your knee.
Before starting this exercise progression, please check in with your healthcare provider or physical therapist to make sure that exercising is safe for your specific condition.
The straight leg raise immediately after surgery can be made safer with the use of your knee brace. Many times after ACL or lateral release surgery, your surgeon will require you to wear a brace on your knee to protect it against excessive bending or straightening. Your brace also helps to protect your knee from sideways forces through your knee joint.
To perform this initial straight leg raise, keep your brace on, lie on the floor, bend your unaffected knee, and keep your surgical knee straight. Try to contract your quadriceps by straightening your knee all the way, and slowly lift your leg up off the floor.
You should lift your leg up about 12 inches, hold it in this position for one or two seconds, and then slowly lower your leg down. Repeat this exercise 10 to 15 times.
To strengthen your hip muscles, you can perform this straight leg raise on your side or on your stomach. Just be sure to keep your brace on to protect your knee, keep your quadriceps muscle contracted, and slowly lift and lower your leg 10 to 15 repetitions.
The straight leg raises without your brace are done just like the ones with your brace. Lie on your back, bend one knee, tighten your quadriceps, and lift your leg up 12 inches. Repeat 10 to 15 times.
To perform the straight leg raises on your side, thus strengthening your gluteus medius muscles of your hip, lie on your side with your surgical leg on top. Bend your bottom knee for stability. Tighten your quadriceps muscles, and lift your leg about 12 inches up. Be sure to keep your knee straight and in line with your hips and body. Perform 10 to 15 repetitions.
When performing straight leg raises on your stomach, simply lie face down, tighten your quadriceps, and lift your leg up 5 to 10 inches without arching your back too much. Be sure not to roll or twist your back to one side. Lift and lower your leg slowly for 10 to 15 repetitions.
When you are able to perform two to three sets of straight leg raises with no weight and no knee brace, it is time to challenge your leg muscles more by adding weight.
To safely add weight to your straight leg raises, first use a one-pound cuff weight and wrap it around your thigh just above your kneecap. This helps to add some resistance without placing too much stress on your knee joint.
The amount of resistance will feel light and may not be too challenging since the torque (remember physics) on your leg will be minimized by the placement of the weight, and thus a short lever arm.
With the weight above your kneecap, perform your straight leg raising exercises just as before. Perform 10 to 15 repetitions, and build up to two to three sets.
When you use a cuff weight below your kneecap, you will be placing some stress through your shin bone, and this could put stress on your healing ACL or other ligaments, so be sure to speak with your physical therapist before sliding the cuff weight down your leg.
When you can perform two to three sets of 10 to 15 repetitions of the exercises, you are ready to move onto the final progression of straight leg raises.
Perform your SLR exercises for 10 to 15 repetitions on your back, your side, and your stomach. To increase the resistance, simply use a heavier cuff weight around your ankle when doing the exercises.
A Word From Verywell
After knee surgery, straight leg raises can be a great way for you to work on strengthening your hip and leg muscles. The exercises could possibly place a significant amount of stress on your healing knee ligaments and tendons. By starting out using your knee brace, and then progressing the amount of resistance by altering the placement of a cuff weight, you can be sure that you are challenging your leg muscles while still keeping your knee ligaments safe from harm.
