Capabilities after patellofemoral ligament repair

Not sure if you have experience with this, but it's worth asking anyways. (And you knew about something similar here.)

Friend of mine had patellofemoral ligament repair and a lateral release done a while back (1.5-2 years I think). She's told me what exactly they did, but I never can remember the details. She described it as "making my stretched out ligament not so stretched out and moving my knee cap where it should be", and pointed me to http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/38/7/1462.abstract .

Doc has told her she should probably avoid most anything that requires significant lateral movement. During PT they had her doing leg press and lunges. She's finally started to get back into doing various things in the gym, but typically tries to avoid anything that puts significant strain on her knee (she'll do leg press 2x30 @ 125 lbs like they did during PT, but is afraid to go full sprint on the cycle *shrugs*).

I'm wary about recommending anything to her, such as doing lower reps and greater weight on leg press, and of course squats, because I have no idea about this particular surgery.

In your experience, what should she be okay doing, and what should she avoid? Since I'm (probably) not going to spend the time teaching her how to squat, a general idea would be helpful, so at the very least I can make some form of positive recommendation.

You're not going to spend the time teaching her to squat, so I won't waste my time telling you that's what you should probably do. Oh, SEARCH FUNCTION. I almost forgot that.

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Originally Posted by Mark Rippetoe

You're not going to spend the time teaching her to squat, so I won't waste my time telling you that's what you should probably do. Oh, SEARCH FUNCTION. I almost forgot that.

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That was a poor choice of words. It's less about "taking the time" to teach her, and more about the fact that I've never actually coached anyone (although I've been dying to find a guinea pig to introduce to SS) and so I don't trust my ability to start on someone with multiple scars on their knee that are both longer than an inch.

I've searched, and the only thing I could find that was somewhat close was the link I mentioned in the first line of my post. Everything else seems to be pretty different. It doesn't help that I'm still not quite sure what they did to her.

I did fail to ask her if she's even tried doing bodyweight squats. If she can at least do that, I may be more inclined to try to ease her into squatting. I just don't want my potential ineptitude at coaching to fuck her knee up again.

If she is 2 years post-op you are not going to fuck up her knees any worse than the PTs have doing lunges. If you know how to squat correctly, just show her according to the progression in the book, and you'll both be fine.

I've had my medial patellofemoral ligament repaired and afterwards my knee was in a lot of pain so I was fearful of doing squats. Finally started doing them again about a year ago and my knee has never felt better. I used to feel like my sport days were behind me but now I feel great and should be squatting and deadlifting 500+ by my next meet in december.