Meniscus tears are a common knee injury often caused by lateral pressure pushed onto the knee.
Rest and recovery are an important part of the initial process of recovery however strength training should be carefully reintroduced to strengthen the surrounding muscles which protects the knee and minimises the chance of osteoporosis later in life.
The first phase of recovery involves improving the range of motion which may be temporarily compromised because of inflammation. Once the range of motion has been improved we can look to the next phase of the rehabilitation program.
Open Chained Strength exercises which means we’ll be doing strength exercises which are not touching the floor allowing us to not overload the meniscus with the weight of our body. Open-chained exercise also allows us to more accurately isolate the quads and hamstring muscles which will be pivotal to strengthen the injured area.
Closed Chained Strength exercises will look more like traditional gym exercises like squatting, deadlifting and lateral slides. As a result balance and usual muscle sequencing will be challenged and therefore improved.
The last phase will be continually increase the load being used and encourage full range of motion in bigger lifts like squats and lunges.