Matthew Maloney

One of the hardest parts of ACL recovery isn’t always the physical work.

It’s patience.

Trust me, after 3 ACL surgeries of my own, I know exactly how this feels. It’s something I struggled with a lot throughout my recoveries too.

When your entire focus is getting cleared, returning to your sport, or feeling “normal” again, it’s easy to feel like you’re constantly waiting for an outcome that’s still months away.

One of the biggest things I learned was to stop measuring recovery only by the end goal and start recognizing the small wins happening every day.

More range of motion.
A little more strength.
Better control.
Less swelling.
More confidence doing something that scared you last week.

There’s actually a mental-performance reason this matters.

Focusing on small, controllable goals can help build self-efficacy, reinforce progress, and keep you engaged in the daily behaviors that move recovery forward.

You can’t always control exactly when you’ll feel 100% again.

You CAN control what you put into today.

Patience isn’t just doing nothing and hoping time passes quicker.

It’s continuing to stack small wins while giving your body and mind the time they need to adapt.

Comment “KNEEHAB” if you’re coming back from a knee injury and want to come back stronger, faster, and Better than ever before.

3 ACL surgeries later… and I have zero knee pain.

Comment the word “PAIN” if you want my Free “Pain Free Knees” Guide to eliminate your knee pain for good.

One of the biggest changes I made was strengthening my entire kinetic chain instead of only focusing on my knee.

Your knee doesn’t absorb and produce force by itself. Your feet and ankles help create a stable base, your calves help absorb and transfer force, your quads control and extend the knee, and your hamstrings, glutes, and hips help control the forces acting on it.

When each part of the chain has the strength, mobility, and neuromuscular control to do its job, load can be distributed across multiple joints and muscle groups instead of relying excessively on one area.

That’s why I train everything from my feet and calves to my quads, hamstrings, glutes, and hip flexors.

There wasn’t one magic exercise that fixed my knees.

It was consistently building capacity throughout the entire chain so my body could better absorb, control, and produce force.

That approach helped me build knees that feel stronger and more capable than ever before.

“Without Commitment, you’ll never start… But without Consistency, you’ll never finish.”
- Denzel Washington

One of the biggest lessons I learned after 3 ACL surgeries and 5 total major surgeries was the power of consistency.

I truly believe consistency is one of the most important qualities you can have in life.

With consistency, no injury has to limit you.

With consistency, you can come back to 100%.

With consistency, you can train your body to become stronger, faster, and better than you ever thought possible.

You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to keep showing up.

Day after day. Rep after rep. Small win after small win.

Because those small wins compound.

And that’s why I truly believe consistency is the secret to success in anything you do.

3 ACL surgeries and 5 total major surgeries later, and I wouldn’t change a thing.

No injury has to limit you.

Comment “KNEEHAB” if you’re coming back from a knee injury and want to come back stronger, faster, and Better than ever before.

My #1 tool that enabled me to come back from 3 ACL surgeries stronger and more confident in my knees than ever before is BANDS.

Comment “BANDS” and I’ll send you my Free ‘Knee Accelerate Program’ with my Top 20 Banded Exercises to help you come back stronger, faster, and better than ever before.

Bands are truly a cheat code for recovery.

They help rebuild your brain-muscle connection, activate muscles that tend to shut off after injury, and build strength, stability, and athleticism.

The constant tension combines elements of yielding and overcoming isometrics, teaching your body to both absorb AND produce force.

They also allow you to target muscles that are much harder to activate with traditional weights alone.

After 3 ACL surgeries, bands became a HUGE part of my comeback, and I still use them almost every single day.

Comment “BANDS” and I’ll send you my Top 20.

Multiple ACL tears. Multiple surgeries. Multiple setbacks.

But none of them let their injury define what they were capable of.

Ana, Luca, Juan, and Garrett all had different journeys, but the goal was the same: rebuild their knees, rebuild their confidence, and come back stronger.

Proud of this crew 💪🏼

Comment “KNEEHAB” if you’re coming back from a knee injury and want to come back stronger, faster, and Better than ever before.

If you’re in the middle of your recovery right now, here are 10 things I wish I told myself that I want you to know.

Comment “KNEEHAB” if you’re coming back from a knee injury and want to come back stronger, faster, and Better than ever before.

No injury has to limit you…

Comment “STRONG” for my Free step by step Knee Recovery Program to help you come back from your knee injury stronger, faster, and better than ever before.