• July 2, 2026 | 3:05 PM - 4:00 PM
• PCC,113ABC

Fueling Recovery: Priming the Muscle for Rehabilitation After ACL Injury

The goal of this lecture is to reach clinicians and update the field with the latest understanding of the biological drivers of poor muscle recovery after ACL injury—evidence suggesting that persistent atrophy is not merely a consequence of reduced loading or neural inhibition, but rather the result of a dysfunctional metabolic environment within the muscle. This impaired environment appears to diminish the muscle’s capacity to respond to hypertrophic adaptive stimuli that would typically drive repair and growth.

Learning Objectives - Describe the known barriers to quadriceps muscle atrophy after ACL injury, including disuse and neural inhibition.
- Explain how mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress are present after ACL injury, and how they likely contribute to anabolic resistance and limit muscle adaptation.
- Consider endurance-like exercise not as a secondary add-on, but as a primary, biologically targeted strategy to restore muscle health and enhance responsiveness to strength training during ACL rehabilitation.

Keywords: Muscle atrophy; Oxidative stress; Exercise prescription