How to exercise with a knee injury

Tricia2013

I have a knee injury and was advised by my physician not to do any exercise for awhile. How I am suppose to lose weight without exercise. Does anyone have any advise?

ukaryote

Strength or cardio?

Many strength exercises allow you to isolate parts of the body. Strength exercises also exercise your cardio-pulmonary system, especially with more repetitions.

I had to search for "upper body cardio workouts" and found many, many suggestions. This video with Laurel House shows arm exercises that can be done in bed or a floor. At first it looks silly until you try it and discover how difficult it can be.

http://quickiechick.com/2012/01/upper-body-cardio-workout-in-bed/

A great quote from body building site " You can't out-race your fork!" Losing weight is mostly due to controlling calories. Exercise contributes much less with weight loss, true fitness feels wonderful!

Hearts_2015

:grumble:

Looking for tips:flowerforyou:

Currently what I do most is aqua workouts, no pain except while walking in the parking lot to the gym Do you have a Y local?

Acg67

I have a knee injury and was advised by my physician not to do any exercise for awhile. How I am suppose to lose weight without exercise. Does anyone have any advise?

Eat in a caloric deficit, that's all that's required

mathmatt

Do you have access to a lap pool? I had a torn meniscus and ACL and that was about the only thing that didn't hurt.

josavage

I have a knee injury as well and my doc said I can do anything that doesn't cause pain. I can ride my bike, swim, lift weights (mostly upper body at first but as I healed I was able to add in more lower body work), pilates, and the elliptical. I continued to go to kickboxing and just did low impact. If something hurts, I stop.

My gym has a stationary bike that you pedal with your arms. I see a lot of people with leg injuries on that.

Edit - Sorry - I read this as looking for what exercises to do with a knee injury. If your doctor told you not to exercise, follow his advice! You don't have to exercise to lose weight. Just eat at a deficit and you'll be fine until you can exercise again.

acpgee

My leg is currently in a cast. I am finding walking (hopping) on crutches to be really strenuous. My normal workout is 65 minutes on the elliptical + lifting. But after 15 minutes of continuous walking on crutches i am pooped, especially outdoors on uneven terrain.

wibutterflymagic

Find upper body and core exercises, low impact yoga or pilates where you aren't kneeling or doing exercises that put pressure on your knee. There are plenty of things to do other then legs.

ShibaEars

Find upper body and core exercises, low impact yoga or pilates where you aren't kneeling or doing exercises that put pressure on your knee. There are plenty of things to do other then legs.

This. I had to focus more on upper body while my knee was recovering.

Out of curiosity though, what kind of injury are we talking? I'm surprised a doctor would say no exercise at all. When my knee was injured (MCL & meniscus injury) I went to physiotherapy, and they gave me specific exercises to strengthen my whole leg (avoiding high impact exercises & heavy weights)

Tricia2013

I had strain my knee doing Zumba of all things about 3 weeks ago. I am going to give some exercise a try though. Keeping a brace on it seems to help.

dopeysmelly

I would go back to the doc and ask him/her what you can do, because you're desperately bored and want to move. No exercise at all doesn't sound right, unless they're advocating Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation for a short while. Of course it all depends on the injury, but you can lose horrendous amounts of muscle strength in your big leg muscles if you do nothing even for a week or two, and that makes recovery harder. I have a torn meniscus and my surgeon just said do whatever doesn't hurt (I do a lot of walking and it has been very therapeutic for my knee) and gave guidance on being careful of range of motion of the knee joint, but I asked specific questions which I think helps.

BTW. You don't need exercise to lose weight, just eat at a deficit.

Tricia2013

Thank you for all of advice. I am going to start doing a little bit at a time, but nothing that requires kneeling or bouncing. That is when I feel pain the most.

ShibaEars

You know what hurts you, but be very careful when starting out. I was told it's important that you strengthen all the muscles in your legs. The stronger they are, the more pressure will be taken off your knees.