Recovering from injury

Simone2373

Four years ago I was (gulp) 50 lb lighter and in the best shape of my life. I worked out regularly, walked to work once or twice a week on top of that, and was on top of my food intake.

Then, I went through a whole bunch of life crap. Went on a medication (thank goodness not for very long) that made me gain 20 lb within a month. Eventually slowed down and then stopped exercising regularly, and started comfort eating and drinking regularly.

The low point probably was last December, when I injured my left knee (meniscus) dancing. In the life crap these days hasn't completely gone away, but it's under control. Best of all, I finally had surgery a week ago to repair my meniscus and I'm healing well.

At my post-op appointment with the surgeon yesterday, we talked about next steps and how the best way to take care of my knees (because I have some osteoarthritis in there too) going forward is to strengthen myself and lose the weight. He suggested, since I've been especially sedentary since last December, to start by just walking/cycling/swimming 1/4 of what I was capable of right before the surgery. In other words, to take it super slowly, super easy, and then increase very, very slowly, over the course of a few months. He also recommended an activity tracker, and to avoid anything that puts extreme stress on the knees, such as deep squats, high impact anything, etc.

This all sounds like sound advice...but I'm wondering what else I can do. Back when I was fit, I worked with a personal trainer once a week where we focused on strength training, but also did some HIIT (tabata sprints on a treadmill for max 5-6 minutes).

One of the other things I am wondering about is athletic therapy. I'm not sure what the difference is between that and physiotherapy (I just forgot to ask him about that). He thought that physio wouldn't hurt, but that in my case it wasn't super necessary.

Any feedback / experience any of you might share would be great - thanks

GOT_Obsessed

Hi glad to hear you got your knee fixed up. I had an ACL reconstruction years back and got into this fitness stuff recently. I played around with body pump and zumba and enjoyed them. But before too long all the jumping around, squatting, and lunges started to put pressure on my knee and it's been sore a lot. (My added weight has been the problem, not gonna' lie)

But I have discovered the rowing machine in no way aggrivates my knee. I know our injuries are different but it's worth trying. It's a fun machine too!

Duck_Puddle

I would suggest physical therapy (physiotherapy). They will be able to assess you, your current strengths/weaknesses, your injuries, and give you a program to build the strength you need in a safe and healthy way. If you’re going from basically zero to hopefully healed with a surgery recovery and arthritis and whatever else, I wouldn’t want to wing it.

H_Ock12

I would also suggest Physical Therapy...do some research into the ones in your area and find a good fit for you. My former PT was also a certified personal trainer which was great when I was recovered and ready to bounce back into the lifting scene.