Tore my ACL a few weeks ago, just as I started bulking. Can't work legs, what to do?

[Ardhimas]

Long story short I tore my ACL playing basketball a few weeks ago, the second day of my bulk. My stats are pretty outdated btw. Anyways, I can walk around fine right now but I definitely can't do squats and deadlifts for a while, would it be advisable to bulk? I don't want to eat at maintenance for the next few months cause I just got back into lifting for my upper body after spraining my wrist about 6 weeks ago, but since I can't do any lower body exercises is it still advisable to bulk? I definitely don't want to cut and end up with the chicken legs I started out with many months ago.

TL;DR tore knee ligament, can't squat/deadlift, can I still bulk?

[F1eld]

Human health and developement is like a pyramid.

Muscle building is near the top of the pyramid.

Why do people in wheelchairs have big strong arms ?

Alot of your muscle weight comes from your back and your legs .


You will never be able military press more weight than you can squat.

What does your doctor/trainer/pt think about your ACL tear ? Did they say when you could train normally ?

[liuzhoudragon]

sorry to hear that. (currently not training legs due to patella injury).

My advice is listen to the doctor and get well first. I have had a tendon surgery on my elbow, didn't wait long enough for it to heal...then retore it in the gym.

It is better to do it right the first time

[Ardhimas]

Human health and developement is like a pyramid.

Muscle building is near the top of the pyramid.

Why do people in wheelchairs have big strong arms ?

Alot of your muscle weight comes from your back and your legs .


You will never be able military press more weight than you can squat.

What does your doctor/trainer/pt think about your ACL tear ? Did they say when you could train normally ?

He says I can do whatever I want with my upper body as long as my wrist doesn't hurt - cause I sprained my wrist and went to him a few months back. Obviously though I can't do anything involving my legs, including a standing military press so now I do that sitting down on a smith machine. I didn't ask him for advice regarding bulking/cutting though which is why I'm asking that here.

[liuzhoudragon]

I would bulk simply because you are going to need to give your leg the max ammount of nutrients available.....although without working legs you might put on more fat that a normal bulk session.

[bebe13junior]

Hmmm...

I would say no for now. Eat a good amount of calories, but stay away from getting into a 'Bulking' phase, as you may end up gaining a lot of weight. That being said, do what you can for your upper body exercise wise and try to work on rehab-ing your ACL. I think that should be your focus. It is hard as no one wants to put aside goals, but I think you need to focus on keeping the knee healed. Eat healthy clean food, but don't bulk! Without leg exercises and cardio, you omit big energy expending activities.

Good luck with your knee. I hope you have a speedy recovery.

[Ardhimas]

sorry to hear that. (currently not training legs due to patella injury).

My advice is listen to the doctor and get well first. I have had a tendon surgery on my elbow, didn't wait long enough for it to heal...then retore it in the gym.

It is better to do it right the first time

Getting well would take me a minimum of 4 months assuming I get the surgery done as soon as I can, but I will be in another country and if the costs there are much steeper than it is in the US I won't be in a good shape for up to a year since I'll have to do it over the winter break. Doctor says I'm fine doing anything that doesn't hurt me, and since it's a knee problem I'm basically doing every exercise either seated or on a bench. I didn't ask him about bulking/cutting though, for obvious reasons.

I would bulk simply because you are going to need to give your leg the max ammount of nutrients available.....although without working legs you might put on more fat that a normal bulk session.

I think I could reduce my bulk intake a little bit, maybe 200 calories less to account for the lack of lower body work. Do you think that could work? My main concern is also because I don't want to lose all my leg strength and the best way to do that I would think would be to bulk.

Hmmm...

I would say no for now. Eat a good amount of calories, but stay away from getting into a 'Bulking' phase, as you may end up gaining a lot of weight. That being said, do what you can for your upper body exercise wise and try to work on rehab-ing your ACL. I think that should be your focus. It is hard as no one wants to put aside goals, but I think you need to focus on keeping the knee healed. Eat healthy clean food, but don't bulk! Without leg exercises and cardio, you omit big energy expending activities.

Good luck with your knee. I hope you have a speedy recovery.

I'm going to need surgery to reconstruct my ACL, and it won't be happening for at least another month. With that I won't be squatting until at least 4 months from today, so I don't really want to eat at maintenance forever. Do you think I could do what some people do who don't squat at all? I'm thinking that's my only option, even though I know it's not exactly a good thing to do, since I don't have a choice.

[FeelTheFear]

200 or so calorie surplus. You won't need the extra calories because large muscles such as the quads, hammies and spinal erectors won't be worked.

Should work perfectly fine. Try to do as much work as you possibly can to retain muscle in your legs.

[akolatier]

Hmmm...

I would say no for now. Eat a good amount of calories, but stay away from getting into a 'Bulking' phase, as you may end up gaining a lot of weight. That being said, do what you can for your upper body exercise wise and try to work on rehab-ing your ACL. I think that should be your focus. It is hard as no one wants to put aside goals, but I think you need to focus on keeping the knee healed. Eat healthy clean food, but don't bulk! Without leg exercises and cardio, you omit big energy expending activities.

Good luck with your knee. I hope you have a speedy recovery.

Do you know anything about the human body? You cannot "rehab" a torn ligament. It requires surgery to fix something like that.

[Ardhimas]

200 or so calorie surplus. You won't need the extra calories because large muscles such as the quads, hammies and spinal erectors won't be worked.

Should work perfectly fine. Try to do as much work as you possibly can to retain muscle in your legs.

Alright, I'll give that a shot. I started walking around as much as I can as soon as I could cause even the MRI technician noticed and pointed out that my left leg had gotten smaller =/

Do you know anything else I could do though? The only thing I can think of is leg raises apart from walking.

Do you know anything about the human body? You cannot "rehab" a torn ligament. It requires surgery to fix something like that.

To be honest, I did not know either that ligaments don't heal on their own until my doctor told me I had to get reconstruction surgery, I was simply under the impression that they took forever to heal.

[bebe13junior]

Sorry Akolatier!

I thought he had surgery already. But ACL injury does not always mean surgery. There are ways to rehab small tears, and he didn't indicate what type of tear it was!

[Ardhimas]

Sorry Akolatier!

I thought he had surgery already. But ACL injury does not always mean surgery. There are ways to rehab small tears, and he didn't indicate what type of tear it was!

Yeah, it's completely torn off haha

[Engineer_Guy]

If you can still do upper body stuff then stick to that. Not much else you can do. You can still bulk but don't go at it like you are still doing lower body stuff too. If you've been consistently training for a while you won't lose everything in a few months.

[HoopSchool34]

Long story short I tore my ACL playing basketball a few weeks ago, the second day of my bulk. My stats are pretty outdated btw. Anyways, I can walk around fine right now but I definitely can't do squats and deadlifts for a while, would it be advisable to bulk? I don't want to eat at maintenance for the next few months cause I just got back into lifting for my upper body after spraining my wrist about 6 weeks ago, but since I can't do any lower body exercises is it still advisable to bulk? I definitely don't want to cut and end up with the chicken legs I started out with many months ago.

TL;DR tore knee ligament, can't squat/deadlift, can I still bulk?

Ard, last night I found out I tore my acl and meniscus playing basketball as well. Also had the same question about cutting and bulking. Wishing you the best and hope you are doing well brotha

[adamdavidson47]

Are you going to a physiotherapist, OP? I'd fully recommend going to one and getting on a leg program to build your quads, hammys up before you have the surgery. It will help speed up your recovery a bit. You can do leg exercises with a torn ACL, but I wouldn't do them without the supervision of a PT.

Just an FYI, I don't want to crush your hopes, but you won't be squatting with weight 3 months after your surgery.