Vibration Therapy for ACL Injury

I fixed my chronic ACL injury using my VT003F vibration plate.

I had repeated injuries on my knees during my time of middle school and college. Then for 30 years, I did not seem to have any issue on my knees, until I twisted my right knee again in 2016 while playing casual badminton. It was the same kind of pain at the same spot as I recalled my memory of 30 years ago.

After this accident, the same kind of injury happened again and started to happen more often. The recovery time of each injury took longer and longer.

Through diligent research, I was able to diagnose my knee injury as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. It started from the damage in middle school and never fully recovered. As my muscles became weak with the growting age, the previous ACL problem exposed, and developed to a chronic injury.

I tried various rehab exercises, but they did not seem to help too much and I lost the patience. I did not really follow a good rehab exercise routine because I traveled a lot.

In 2018, my right knee became more easily to get injured. I had to wear a knee brace all the time. The brace provided some support, but the main reason I used it was to remind me to be careful with my knee while I walk, especially when I turn the direction. Cutting lawn at my sloped backyard became a painful job.

Then I started vibration exercise on my VT003F vibration plate. I perform squat exercise on the vibration plate, 10 minutes a session, twice a day.

After just 3 days, I noticed the change. I felt I could move more freely and smoothly. I have developed a good habitual sensitivity on my knees for small changes in its functionality. This immediate improvement from a few day's use of VT003F really encouraged me to continue the vibration exercise.

As my recovery was in good progress, I started to hold a pair to dumbbells in my exercise to add more muscle contraction intensity. I also performed eccentric squat with my right leg. Eccentric exercise seems to be much more effective on a vibration plate.

I tried both linear vibration plate (VT003F) and pivotal oscillation plate. I felt 30Hz frequency on my VT003F being the best.

After about 6 months, I felt my kneed was back to normal, even stronger.

In May 2019, I did two major projects in my back yard – a 300 yard fence and a 12’x10’ paver patio, all by myself. My knee did not bother me at all.

Later in the year, as I thought my ACL problem was fixed, I became lazy with my vibration exercise routine. Plus, I travelled a lot. After a few months of interruption, my knee sensitivity reminded me that I needed go back to my daily vibration exercise routine. I guess that I only achieved marginal recovery on my ACL. I needed to keep the good work for a longer time to stabilize the improvement.

How does vibration exercise help ACL problem?

By doing vibration squat, I enhanced my muscles around the knee joint. Strong muscles provide better support to the knee joint and its functionality without stressing the ligaments.

Besides muscle enhancement, vibration exercise may help repair the damaged ligaments.

Damaged ligaments are difficult to repair. Repeated injuries on ligament cause the formation of fibrous tissue, which replace the living ligament tissues. Once formed, the fibrous tissues are difficult to reverse. It becomes chronic injury.  Excessive fibrous tissues compromise the  elasticity and strength of the ligaments.

Vibration exercise may provide a solution for ligament repair. The mechanical stimulation from vibration, at a certain magnitude, may break the fibrous tissues and allow the living ligament cells to grow back.

In my case, for sure I enhanced my knee muscles and responsiveness (nerve function) by doing vibration exercise. I think I also partially repaired the damaged ligament by breaking the fibrous tissues and allow living ligament tissue to grow back.

The repair of ligament is a slow incremental process. Vibration exercise has become my daily routine, probably forever. Fortunately, it is very easy to maintain such a routine, no sweat, actually quite enjoyable. I do 10 minutes squat and 10 minutes calf-raise on my VT003F every day.

How did I injure my ACL?

I first injured my ACL in middle school time because of my incorrect swimming posture.

I did not know it was ACL injury until after 30 years...

When I was in middle school, I regularily practice swimming using breaststroke posture. I developed a wrong posture: after kicking out my legs, I forcefully close the two legs towards each other while retrieving my legs. I consider this way my legs would squeeze the water backward and allow me to swim faster. This posture created a shear force on my lower legs.

Overtime, the shear force on my lower legs caused the pain on my knees. I did not care too much about the pain. Though it was normal. I continued to swim with the wrong posture and caused more damage on my knees. Later I stopped my swimming activities because of the busy schoolwork. The knee pain also stopped.

In college, I injured my right knee a few times times when playing soccer. I felt the same pain at the same spot. 

Then for 30 years I did not have many sport activities for 30 years. I forgot about my I had a knee issue.

In 2016, I twisted my right knee while playing casual badminton. It was the same kind of pain at the same spot. It took a couple of weeks to recover. Later on, I twisted the knee more easily, always the same pain at the same spot. This became a problem.

Thanks to the Internet, I was able to self-diagnose my knee issue as chronic ACL damage, after reading a lot of articles and watching a lot of Youtude videos. I learned the anatomy of knee and the function of each part. I kind of have a visualized 3D image of my knee in my brain.

(I thought the shear force would more likely strain my media collateral ligament (MCL), but somehow my MCL looks fine. Only the ACL has the problem.)

My conclusion is that I injured my ACL in my childhood and youth multiple times. Excessive fibrous tissues were formed, replacing the living ligament tissues. As my muscle became weak because of aging and lack of physical exercise, the ligament problem was exposed, and I got the same injury again 30 years later.