Exercise advice following arthroscopic knee surgery

lp_knight
lp_knight Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all,

I have recently had an arthroscopy due to a hole in my cartilage under my right knee. As a 33 year old it was slightly worrying to learn that the cartilage had degraded. The surgeon cleaned up the hole and afterwards explained that it had probably been caused by a trauma to the knee when i was younger where my kneecap had pushed the cartilage onto a spur of bone.

Follow up meetings with the surgeon have confirmed that they don't want me to do any heavy loading past 45 degrees when bending my knee. Over this angle then the affected piece of cartilage is engaged and will then continue to wear. This means full squats and lunges are no longer possible.

However I still need to build up the muscles on my leg to make sure that the muscles take more load to keep my knee as healthy as possible.

I have been doing half squat exercise on machines and straight leg deadlifts. I have also been recommended to try and keep my glutes as strong as possible.

If anyone has any suggestions on any way to increase leg strength without bending past the 45 degree angle it would be really appreciated. I am keen to do as many types of exercises as possible and open to trying anything.

Thanks in advance.

Replies

  • pierinifitness
    pierinifitness Posts: 2,226 Member
    Listen to your orthopedic surgeon and physical therapist, they know best during your rehab period.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    Dilvish wrote: »
    try weighted water walking...strap some water weights to your ankles and walk in chest high water for an hour or so....

    Absolutely don’t do this - unless your surgeon or physical therapist tells you to.

    Do what (and only what) your surgeon and physical therapist tell you to do. If your surgeon hasn’t told you to do anything and you don’t have a physical therapist yet, then that should tell you what you should be doing.
  • lp_knight
    lp_knight Posts: 3 Member
    Thanks for the comments.

    My PT was very keen to get me doing some form of squats and lunges to build my legs up which the surgeon has since told me not to do. I am seeing the PT again in 2 weeks but was keen to do some stuff in the gym first.

    Completely agree that it is best to take it slow and be conservative with knee injuries.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    Just as a general thing...I would make sure you get much more specific info from your physical therapist - or that he or she is explaining things in a way that you clearly understand.

    When I was in knee rehab, I had very specific movements that I was to do, a specific number of times, in specific ways, and also very specific things I was not to do (within the same movement).

    “Some form of squats and lunges” is incredibly vague and since degrees of these place different stresses in different places (which makes certain types fantastic for certain injury rehabs and absolutely catastrophic for others), I’d want to be 1000% sure I understood exactly what I was supposed to do and what not to do.

    Good luck! It’s not so much just going slow-it’s a matter of doing the right things at the right times in the right ways. And not doing the wrong things at the wrong times in the wrong ways.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Just a week after my arthroscopy (meniscus tidy up and patella smoothing) I was doing deep single knee bends, lunges, squats and hops. Surgeon discharged me on the spot and just said live your life and forget about your knee.

    On the other hand (well other knee actually...) I had a life-changing permanent injury, instruction never to lunge, don't do contact sports, don't do breast stroke kick and expect a TKR in the future.

    Long story short every injury is different and you must take guidance from professionals that know your particular injury not from strangers on the internet.

    Do be aware that rehab is going to be different to when you are heeled from the surgery. Be patient - this is just a moment in the rest of your life. The time to discover what you can and can't do isn't immediately after surgery.

    Completely agree with the advice to keep your quads strong as they do stabilise and support an unstable damaged knee joint. My favourite way to keep my quads strong is cycling.
  • aokoye
    aokoye Posts: 3,495 Member
    lp_knight wrote: »
    Thanks for the comments.

    My PT was very keen to get me doing some form of squats and lunges to build my legs up which the surgeon has since told me not to do. I am seeing the PT again in 2 weeks but was keen to do some stuff in the gym first.

    Completely agree that it is best to take it slow and be conservative with knee injuries.

    What is "some form of squats and lunges"? More importantly, it sounds like you PT (by that do you mean physical therapist or personal trainer - I never know around here) told you one thing and your surgeon has since told you an opposing thing? I would call your PT's office (assuming you mean physical therapist) on Monday and ask for them to consult with your surgeon. There may be a good reason why they didn't want you do start doing squats and lunges now, especially depending on what type of squats/lunges are being prescribed by your PT.

    I've been fortunate in that for both sets of knee surgeries there was a lot of coordinated care between my orthos and my PTs, especially the last two surgeries. And yes, there were times when my most recent PT (who I saw for the past two years and just stopped seeing) had to ask my ortho if I could do something and the answer would either be a rather strong "no", a "yes - cautiously", or an unreserved "yes".

    And yes, strengthening your glutes and your quads is very very important. Doing so haphazardly is not a good idea though.

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