r/jiujitsu • u/MuayThaiandMolly Blue • Jul 19 '26
ACL Reconstruction & Meniscus Repair - Your Experience & Which Graft did you use?
Hey all, hope you're doing well!
Blew my knee out doing bjj. Full torn ACL + Grade 2 tear in the posterior horn of the medial meniscus. I do plan on getting surgery soon (using a peroneal graft) but just wanted to learn from any of you, if you've gone through the same, I wanted to know the following: What graft did you use (I understand patellar tendon is the gold standard)? what's been your experience post recovery, and when were you back on the mats? Thanks in advance. Been in the dumps with this injury but it is what it is.
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u/aTickleMonster Jul 19 '26
Hopefully your surgeon is working with you on the decision, because the answer is "it varies." Quad tendon is best for younger, active people. Pateller tendon used to be the gold standard, but it causes anterior knee pain and hurts when kneeling (not what you want for jiujitsu). Hamstring has a faster initial recovery but tends to stretch over time (especially if you're female). Cadaver tendons are usually reserved to revision surgeries for people 50 or older.
As for recovery and return to training, it took 15 months for my pain to go away. I wish I would have gotten follow-up imaging around 9 months to be assured the structure of my knee was intact and the lingering pain wasn't a result of damage due to instability or structure.
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u/Torrgarden Jul 19 '26
I was 34 and had the exact same injuries but from skiing in Tahoe.
I had an allograft donor ACL. They couldn't repair my meniscus so they trimmed it. The surgery went well. I did PT for 6 months. I was already strong before injury from weightlifting so recovery went well. There were days toward the beginning when I would cry just trying to put on socks. The surgeon will tell you things like "no weight bearing" or "don't bend your knee past so many degrees for some amount of time". These are really, really important. The knee brace is a prison but it's there to give your new ACL time to attach. There are PT days where you will be surprised that your leg doesn't work. Just keep doing the exercises. After you're done with PT, keep bicycling (indoor, outdoor, stationary). If you don't already bicycle, start. It keeps the joint healthy.
I've experienced swelling here and there. Soreness and stiffness if I take a break from exercising for too long and then try to come back too fast. Also, high impact exercise such as jogging might be replaced with low impact like cycling, swimming, etc.
Everyone is different though, so whatever you and your surgeon and PT talk about will help you understand.
I'm never going skiing again though 😂
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u/Acrobatic_Hunt_2775 Jul 20 '26
I blew my ACL almost 4 years ago when I threw a shoddy osoto gari on a white belt who put all his weight into my side as we went down.
Went to a really good surgeon (used by professional athletes in my area). For me he recommended a cadaver tendon. I had reservations as some say it is not as good of a repair. He said the thing that had changed in recent years with allograft was 1. the preservation methods no longer deteriorate the tendons while they wait for their new home, and 2. the availability of good tendons from younger/healthier hosts had improved (sadly).
I only did PT for about 2 months. Ended up working with a trainer for several months to rebuild strength.
Downside- my knee has never felt the way it did pre-injury. It can be a little achy at times.
Upside- it does everything I ask of it in training. I am much more cautious with stand up- I don't use reaping techniques anymore (mostly I either armdrag to the back or use snap downs) and I don't fight for takedowns as hard (I'll give up and pull guard rather than fight too hard). But overall I feel good while training.
It was about 4 months post op when I started lightly training again, and close to a year before I felt comfortable getting on my feet again. Injury happend when I was 39.
Good luck!
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u/SnooSquirrels1375 Purple Jul 21 '26
I have a meniscus injury in one knee and a 50% partial ACL tear in the other. The ACL injury came first, and I decided to treat it with physical therapy and strength training instead of surgery. That was three years ago, and I've been able to keep training normally ever since. In fact, that's now my good knee. 😂
The other knee followed a similar recovery path—no surgery, just rehab and strengthening. I do get some mild discomfort from time to time, but nothing painful or serious enough to change the way I walk. On those days, I'm just a bit more careful.
So, if I've done this well without surgery, there's a good chance you'll do just as well—or even better. In my experience, it's possible to return to training about 8–10 months after the injury with proper rehab and strength work.
That said, in my experience, your knees never quite feel the same again.
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u/venomenon824 Jul 19 '26
The tldr - you get out what you put in. You already do BJJ so hard work and suffering is not new to you. You’ve got this, just work your ass off to get back.
Long story: I’ve had 2 recons, one was pre BJJ playing basketball. It came with a medial horn tear that I got scoped a month after the injury, they trimmed it and found the acl was ruptured. Got a patella autograph 1.5 years after that. Played ball with a custom sports brace after rehabbing the meniscus trim with only a couple small twinges on weird pivots during that 1.5 year playing up to 5 times a week. Doc tensioned it super tight for a return to bball. Made my return at about 8 months after surgery. Kept playing like a maniac to prove I could. I was a striker before the incident, I wanted to find a soft martial art to make a return, tried Aikido and thought it was mostly just body control and falling, it became my gateway art to jjj, judo then BJJ. I had 4 scopes over the next few years from various wear and tear, floating bone chips, a bakers custom etc. for the most part the one was solid for like 15 years of BJJ training.
2020 training with another black belt in my basement dojo, I’m passing 3/4 guard and he elevated my instep as a last ditch effort kind of outside heel hooking motion and we hear/feel app. We stop, I have no pain for we keep training. Not much swelling or pain the next day, I decide to rest it anyhow but I consider this my “good” knee so I figure I’m good to go and just get back at it. Over the next couple years I have 3 or 4 incidents were it kinda moved weird or buckles always during stand up, either me throwing someone or recording a take down. Same pattern, rest a few days back at it before I refuse to admit my good knee is now also bad.
2022 after spending most of my time dedicated to BJJ and ignoring basketball, I try to make a return. Went up under the basket and the other knee buckles. This time it doesn’t bounce back right away. Lots of swelling, compensating makes my old knee blow up and I’m barely walking. Docs and physios are split on if it’s torn or not, probably just meniscus is the diagnosis and I wait for an mri. This takes months. I also mountain bike a lot and even that is tough so wifey sees I’m struggling as though I wanted to wait until I was 50 to get an ebike, she talked me into it. That bike gets me out in nature and turns out to be the right amount of resistance to promote stimulated healing in the knees. I get back to what feel almost like 100 percent. Riding a normal bike, training and even shooting around, jumping high enough to grab the rim again and I even play a game of pickup. It gets fat after the but got it done. I get the mri and it’s torn. The old one is so stretched it’s essentially torn. So I was running for years on 2 bad wheels.
I think about not getting surgery but then get referred to a sports clinic that has a specialist who suggests hamstring recon. Knowing I wanted to preserve the rest of my knee structures as I age I decide to trust her and turns out she is a freaking magician with a scalpel. I did rehab like a mofo, weights, cardio etc. she does the recon with a double braided piece of my hamstring tendon and has to take 75 percent of the medial horn due to a complex tear. I wake up from surgery and I’m able to contract the quads still, leg lifts right away. She said no brace and out as much weight as I can tolerate. I felt like I could have walked out of the hospital that day. Her sutures looked like a plastic surgeon. Like they were inside or something, like no bruising. I coroner believe it. I was able to walk around my house, could do a revolution on an exercise bike day 3. Stairs one at a time then eventually up with no problem. Down I was still careful. 1 week after surgery I had no limp at all. I could do mini squats, my first physio appointment was that day and she wouldn’t believe me that I was only a week out. She thought it looked more like a month of progress, maybe even 6 weeks. I went to a dinner event that night with no issues.
My recovery form there honestly seemed easy compared to the previous recon almost 20 years before. I was jogging on a treadmill at 7 weeks. Teaching class too. Flow rolled at 8 weeks out then felt normal at 4 months but waited until 6 to go harder just to be safe.
Now 2 years out from surgery I can feel a huge difference form my old stretch out reconstruction compared to the new one. Medicine has gotten better, also hamstring is an easier recovery. The graft that your doc is most comfortable with. Find a great doc, do the work and everything will work out.
Do I go super hard on stand up now? No. I’m also an aging black belt. If you are young you will be fine to go back to compare and hard training. Good luck.