Knee Replacement Surgery - Need Exercise Advice and Ideas

chuckb24c

I am having knee surgery in September. Long overdue! I am not a spring chicken but I have been athletic all of my life.
I am exercising every day by either going to the gym, Orangetheory, or exercising in the pool. All of that has paid off along with my diet. My work ethic and effort is good and I have lost some weight.... My Concern: I am having trouble building pure strength.....I have the upper body strength of a tadpole. Some of this is due to neglect, some can be attributed to age and declining Testosterone and some can be attributed that I never had it to start with....... My concern is that I am going to need more strength as I rehab my knee. I need suggestions on some upper body exercises I can do between now and September without relying on my legs. Any suggestions will be appreciated

jseams1234

I have a blown-out knee too. I have no idea if they are going to replace it eventually - it's an ongoing battle with the VA...

Anyhow - I still train. I'm able to stand and walk so I can still do most work that requires my legs as a platform. I just can't squat or put too much strain on my left knee. For upper body I still bench, row, lat pulldowns/pullups, dips, OHP and isolation work like shrugs, flys, bi's and tri's. The only things I do that require my legs as a fairly solid platform are barbell rows and barbell shrugs. You can substitute bb rows with bent over db rows or seated cable rows and lots of people don't do shrugs - there are things like face-pulls that can work your traps too. I just like big traps and for some reason just love shrugs.

chuckb24c

Great list. Thanks for your response. I was advised to have my knee replaced 10 years ago. I waited as I remember the surgeon telling me that there were significant improvements to the procedure each year. He was right!! It was an old football injury that I can no longer endure. Really affects the quality of life when you are limited because of pain. Good luck to you!

aokoye

Honestly my first thought is that you'll probably also really want to work on your glutes as well. Double check with your surgeon and the PT that you'll be working with though. From my experience with a set of knee surgeries that isn't as extensive but seems to have a much longer/more extensive rehab plan, you'll want as much lower body strength as possible going in.

chuckb24c

Thank you. Good point! I’m seeing my PT person on Monday. Right leg hurts so bad that they haven’t gotten much work lately. I’m sure they are weak!

aokoye

chuckb24c wrote: »

Thank you. Good point! I’m seeing my PT person on Monday. Right leg hurts so bad that they haven’t gotten much work lately. I’m sure they are weak!

Oh good! Not good that you're right leg is in so much pain, but that you'll be able to ask your PT about it on Monday. My general advice is to work with them to figure out anything you can do without major pain that will strengthen your right leg (I'm assuming you're having surgery on your right knee) between now and September. Of course you also have to actually to do the exercises they suggest.

You might also want to ask about blood flow restriction therapy (BFR) and if they have any physical therapists who are certified in it. My orthopedic surgeon, three (yes three) physical therapists (all in the same clinic), and I are of the opinion that it was a bit of a game changer for me in terms of my recovery if we compare my 2016 surgery vs my 2017 surgery (different knees, same ortho, same primary PT). Feel free to message me if you want to hear more about my experiences with it.

chuckb24c

Thank you, I will check out BFR with my physical therapist.

beamin41

Check out KNEEHAB.


I had 3 knee surgeries. This kept my quad strong which took tons of stress off of my joints.

chuckb24c

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. I will look into this for sure. I presume you used this post surgery or was it also used in preparation of a surgery?

beamin41

Yes, pre and post. The stronger your quad is going into the operation the better. This totally helped me when it came to deal with quad atrophy. I also use a compex Ems device. I would continue using the pool as a main ingredient also. The pool has zero weight impact, and provides constant resistance. Like recumbent cycling was great too.

Using EMS (Electrical Muscle Stimulation) as well as aquatic training helped keep the swelling out of my knee and maintain my strength.

Someone mention strengthening the hips and glutes, which is definitely important. You don't want to compensate and then have a domino affect of other nagging injuries.

chuckb24c

Good advice and much appreciated! Thanks again!

chuckb24c

my surgery was set back due to a high A1C blood test. I have been eating healthier but my blood sugar is higher than it has ever been. Any good books or websites on nutrition that might be helpful? Don't want to get caught up in a fad diet. I think I overloaded on fruit but not sure if that is the cause.?

Purplebunnysarah

The best way to make your body more sensitive to insulin (which will help with blood glucose levels) is to do light to moderate exercise after meals. I know you need a knee replacement but are you able to walk? A brisk walk after eating can help tremendously.

chuckb24c

Yes it is painful but I can move. Swimming is much easier. I guess that would suffice? Thank you!

cowleyl

I'm having a double knee replacement in less than a week (eep!). I have been using a recumbent bike daily and doing prehab leg exercises, which together have made a huge difference to my leg strength and knee pain. I've been using weights for upper body strength but I must admit I haven't put as much effort into that as I have into my legs. I have my own recumbent bike, which is very convenient. There are good websites with prehab exercises.

chuckb24c

Thank you! My surgery has been postponed until January. My A1C was too high at post op so I have got to get it down. Appreciate the information and I wish you much success in your surgery. I am going to send you a friend request! Chuck

kshama2001

My knees are probably not as bad as yours, but I have found performing these exercises regularly to be very helpful:



When I was doing the rounds of testing a few years back, all my medical professionals gently reminded me that losing weight would be good for my knees - is this true for you as well?

aokoye

kshama2001 wrote: »

When I was doing the rounds of testing a few years back, all my medical professionals gently reminded me that losing weight would be good for my knees - is this true for you as well?

I'm not the OP but I will say that was never the case for me for one reason or another. Probably because the issue had absolutely nothing to do with how much I weighed (my knees tracked incorrectly in part because my patellas were to high - patella alta). Things like cycling caused pain. If I had weighed enough that my weight caused a risk with general anesthesia then I'm sure it would have been brought up and surgery would have been postponed.

That said this was also a, "if we do this now we might be able to spare you at least one knee replacement" sort of surgery.

aWildFlowere

advice: if you have other conditions it is best to see PT before performing exercises as some can have a negative effect on your hip flexors, back and other areas. Aggrevating another body area to pre-hab another is never a good idea.

suibhan6

Prior to the surgery, yes super important to get the upper body in shape. While my surgery was for a large tumor removal in the knee area, I was informed that a lot of the re-training of the body would be similar to that of a knee replacement (and in my case, maybe even worse, since that tumor had taken out a lot of musculature before the cause was diagnosed...)

Learn to use crutches... I was allowed to put weight on that leg, unlike if it were broken, but things will be hard to navigate. Get a pair in advance. Get them fitted properly. Learn to use them correctly.

Learn to use both arms to push up from a sitting position, without relying on that leg. Your other leg will help, but frankly in my case, an old injury there made it more definite that I learned how to do this, especially since I'm six feet tall and standard chairs (and toilets) are meant for standard height people. Yep I use the handicapped stall out in public...


Obviously discuss all this with your doc or future PT. Unfortunately I was moving at the time of surgery, and getting into a NEW PT facility for after surgery (that wouldn't require 2 hours for just one way of driving) took time. No one wants a new client, even if you need them to need to want you... You sound like you have that part covered, which is great, so I won't go into detail on the time before they'd take me in after surgery, on that.