You can train fairly actively well before 12 months. I had meniscus surgery in both knees, and by 4 months I was able to train with no problems. However, it takes a good 12 months though to regain full strength. I found aquarobics extremely helpful. But competition puts on a lot of extra pressure, and competition training is considerably more stressful than regular training, so from my perspective, I would think that you should wait a year before beginning that kind of intense training. Therefore competing in 2024 or even early 2025 might be overly ambitious.

It can take a long time, but you'll certainly get back to feeling 100% with your knees. Two years after surgery I was back to doing deep knee squats, folk dancing and active standing judo randori.

Folk dancing? Videos or it didn't happen. I'm a pretty reliable source of info when it comes to knee surgery. I've had 8. 2 complete rebuilds and 6 to remove damage meniscus that couldn't be repaired. What I have learned is you don't want to rush getting back to hard training. It can be really frustrating, but it's very important to let the repair completely heal. Meniscus notoriously heals slowly. Make sure to do all your range of motion exercises. For sure roll, but if you aren't 100% sure about someone, let them know that you're recovering.

I received arthroscopic knee surgery to repair my medial meniscus on 10/12/23. Many sources online, as well as my surgeon, are saying to wait until at least the 12 month post op mark to fully return to competitve sports. Although I'm not planning to compete until Q4 2024 or early 2025, I wanted to start getting tips for returning to comp training after a serious injury. How did you get past the headspace of constantly worrying about being reinjured?

October 22nd 2022 I broke my shoulder ACJ, full separation of ligaments. Had surgery within the magical 1 month window. Competed March 19th 2023. No major problems or reinjury, just shoulders that look like they belong to different people. Had a Grade 2 LCL tear that didn't require surgery but kept me out longer. There's more jiu jitsu you can do without a shoulder, than a knee. Regarding 100%, you might never actually be 100% again. I still get a dull aching pain in my knee that means 'don't push me', my shoulder still isn't as strong as it was. But you might be pleasantly surprised what you can achieve whilst at ~90%. I remember Christian saying his injuries won't let him do Japanese neckties anymore. The point is that he doesn't need Japanese neckties to beat the vast majority of jiu jitsu practitioners. Likewise there's stuff I don't do anymore because it irritates my shoulder. Mainly a lot of brain dead warm up shit that was pointless anyway.

Folk dancing? Videos or it didn't happen.

I had meniscus surgery on December 19th. Started rolling again about 2 weeks ago. Still avoiding certain positions and playing everything very safe. If I was to compete again in the future, I'd still wait another 4 months at least before competition. Training for competition should be ok 4 monhts post op.

Only you can truly know what stops you from training. I have been severely injured while training, and definitely have had to switch it up a bit to stay on the mats. Be honest with yourself. You may have to change your style of training or maybe stop clashing horns with the giant blue belt savages in the gym, but you can do something. Anything is better than time off the mat. Drillers make killers. Jits-Life✌🏻🦍

4 months post op seems quick after a repair. I had a pretty severe bucket handle tear. I'll wait until probably September to go hard again. Nicky Ryan re-tore his meniscus 9 months after repair. I'm gonna learn from his mistake lol.