Rehabilitation of a knee injury: tensions between standard exercises and lived experiences

Abstract

This article addresses a question posed within medical research about why different patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries experience different postrehabilitation knee function. Unlike the medical literature that focuses narrowly on rehabilitation, the study research shows that standardized rehabilitation programs are interpreted, experienced, and executed differently by participants. The authors argue that these differences are related to preinjury understandings of self and body, previous sport movement experiences, and differing faith in the physiotherapist and rehabilitation center’s expertise. It is very likely that understanding how patients think about their embodied selves and their differing interpretations and executions of rehabilitation programs can contribute to a more useful understanding of different functionality and more effective rehabilitation program.