how to work out with old injuries?

hmdavis

Ok, so back in the day, I was pretty athletic. I was a gymnast, cheerleader, dancer, and a diver (yeah all at the same time too…). The point is, due to all that crazy stuff, I have several sports injuries. The biggest issue is my knee, I had surgery on my ACL about 9 years ago (now I feel old) and sometimes when I work out, my knee just gets sore. It's not a big deal, but can make cardio tough when I'm sore, so my question to you all would be, what good workouts are there that put less pressure on the knees? What's the best calorie/ fat buster with low impact? Any other suggestions?

bsexton3

Back in the day, I shattered the inside of my knee playing flag football. Tore everything, and still need to wear a brace when doing things I shouldn't: skiing. I don't play things like basketball, tennis, and haven't for the past 25 years. All this led to the overweight issue.

Crazy thing is, with the weight coming off, my knee is feeling a lot better.

My main exercise is cycling. As my ticker shows you, I spend a lot of time on my bike. In the winter, I use a trainer to put my bike on. This year, with the weight loss and the added strength from cycling, I have started weight training with the knee and just starting to run. I realized I need to take a bit more weight off before I run more.

According to my doctor, the best exercise is swimming, but the pool is too far away to make that a normal exercise.

Good luck.

vkpmusic

swimming, pilates, yoga.... anything considered "Low impact" will still be good if you do it regularly. I like Walk Away the Pounds too.

Dan54

If you don't have a bicycle take a look at getting one. Don't got to one of the mass marketer and buy a BSO (bicycle shaped object). Go to a good bike shop (even if you have to go some distance) and tell them your issues, what you want to do and how much your budget is.

They will do a much better job helping you get something that will work for you. Plus they will help you get a bike that fits you properly, make the adjustments to get it to fit you properly and most importantly is assembled properly. This is critical to getting the most out of a bike and not hurting yourself. They will also do the initial tune-up your bike will need after you get the first couple of hundred miles for free. Plus you'll get better components, which will shift better, and make your riding more pleasant.

Riding a bike is good cardio and you don't have to punish your knees to get a good workout. You will find that your knees get stronger fairly quickly too. Plus you have the added benefits of getting out and seeing some sights. As long as you aren't pushing hard or standing up to pedal there is almost no impact to riding a bike. Even then its nothing close to the pounding your knees take running.

KarenBorter

Thanks for posting this as I have the same issues. No surgery but I probably need it in my right knee. My former trainer also told me that building the muscle around the knee helps but definitely doing the low impact stuff is better. It's why I do the elliptical at the gym v. the tread mill. Try as I might, after 10 minutes on the tread mill my knee starts to hurt (it's weird though because when I hike it's not too bad. I think I am going to try the stationary bike too.

Yoga, pilates all low impact but I think biking is the way to go for calorie burn!

mrsyac2

You know Tony Horton (creator of P90x) Shattered his knee as a kid and he still workouts very intensely. He says, Modify! Modify Modify if you have too. He even says in one of his videos while doing squats where you touch the floor and then come up that some days he can touch the floor because his knee feels good and other days he can't but you just gotta try. I have a messed up knee myself which is seemingly more crickety after doing Insanity and my knee gets tender after leg days or Plyo days not unbearable just tender sometimes it's tender to the touch Think I need to get a knee brace, not working out isn't an option for me.

TrainingWithTonya

You can do whatever you want after knee surgery if you train right to prepare for it. I've had knee surgery twice and am looking at a third. All have been due to traumatic injury, not exercise. The first one was 21 years ago. I was in a car accident and my knee went through my dashboard. I broke the kneecap and tore all the ligaments and tendons. After surgery, I did the rehab exercises (I went to a specialist for my knee surgery who deals strictly with athletes, so he pushed me for rehab.) and had a full recovery. I even went back to wrestling professionally afterwards. The second one was 14 years ago, when I did a backflip in 4 inch heels and one of my heels broke and I landed with all my weight on my knee. Same knee. I had to have the ACL repaired then. I was getting my certification in step aerobics a month later. Again, the rehab exercises were key. Since then I've taught step, kickboxing, etc. and done squats with 300 pounds with no knee issues, because I continued lifting weights and strengthening the muscles supporting the joint, which also strengthens the ligaments, tendons, and bones of the joint. Three days ago, I tripped over something my son left at the bottom of my porch stairs (I leave at 6am and the porch light blew as I was going out the door so I couldn't see it.) and landed with all my body weight directly on the knee. Yep, you guessed it, same knee. Because of my past issues with this knee, they have me in an immobilizer until they get the MRI results back to say if I need surgery again or if I can just rehab it. For cardio while I'm rehabbing, I'll be using the pool, a hand bike, or a recumbent bike, depending on how bad it is. For the rehab, I will be doing resistance bands to start and then adding weight as the strength improves. I'll also start doing my jogging in the pool when I can start impact exercise so that I get mild impact and then move up to walking on land, speed walking, jogging, etc. As with any other type of training, it's all about slow progression to more and more intensity (be it weight or impact) so that the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and bones are improved without more damage.