Injured my knee and doctor says no exercise :-(

Hang in there :-( no experience but I'm with ya on this. I feel for everyone who has a real passion for this but are forced to stop over something they cannot really control.

What about swimming?


To be clear, I think you should totally follow the doctors orders if he said no exercise period. But swimming is generally pretty easy on the joints. Or Aqua aerobics- might sound lame, but might also be fun.

I'm right there with you -- recovering from shoulder surgery and I've got months to go before I can do any "hard" cardio (no jumping or jarring). No yoga, no swimming, no weight lifting. All I'm allowed to do is walk 30 minutes every other day or ride the recumbent bike. At first I thought it was utterly useless, considering that I typically tried to burn 500 or 700 calories during prior workouts. But as soon as I started walking I realized how very tiring it was for me and I realized how much energy it takes just to heal.

All you can do it adjust what you eat. I gained almost 10lbs during the first 3 weeks after surgery, but it was from eating comfort food -- whatever I wanted -- and from sitting almost 22 hours a day. I didn't beat myself up over it as I needed to divert that energy toward healing, not toward making myself feel bad. Actually...I did beat myself up but a lot of people here on MFP helped me stay positive.

Anyway, for the last 10 days I have done minimal exercise but watched my nutrition very carefully and I'm losing weight again. I refuse to go through another surgery because of injuring myself doing something stupid because it's tempting to work out "just a little bit." I have just resigned myself to this being a time to heal. It's not forever -- it's just for right now. Don't take a chance on re-injury no matter how much you want to be back in the saddle. Make the investment in your knee and know that you did everything you could to allow it to heal properly.

6 weeks isn't that long. I've seen you around the site for a while and a few weeks off aren't going to kill months worth of hard work.

Adjust your calories a bit. And use this as a learning tool: Your primary weight maintenance plan should always be centered around your calories, not your exercise plan. Take it from me, this will not be the last time you have to break from exercise because of injury. It's a regular part of the game.

Also, speaking as someone that has had major knee problems for years but still completed Insanity twice, you may want to look elsewhere when your 6 weeks are up. Insanity is great and loads of fun, but it's hell on your knees.

I have a bad knee period and can't do anything ever that is high impact or stressful. Walking is good though, and biking. Also try the low-impact and beginner videos at fitnessblenders.com. I learned low-impact variations from those videos that I can sub in other workouts so I don't hurt myself. That's what works for me because it's stuff I can actually do which is better than sitting on the couch making excuses and slowly gaining weight.

I tore a knee ligament in June... no exercise for a while... the doctor told me finally in October I could start with a little walking, and non-impact exercise. I joined a new gym with a trainer that deals with clients who are recovering from injury and he set me up with a small program using the elliptical, a few resistance machines, and the treadmill. On alternate days I swim and go to aqua aerobics, and one of the teachers REALLY works the whole body hard.... I think the music is there only to be a background as theres no "dance moves" at all in that class!
Doing alternate days of swim/aqua and mild cardio/resistance machines seems to be helping me get a little strength back without having too much pain.

Good luck to you

Always follow doctor's orders or you will not heal and just make the injury worse. However, check with your doctor about walking. Lately, that's been my only form of exercise, and my burns are still around 200ish. I just walk during my breaks at work.

Lots of exercises for upper body and abs require no leg involvement. Time for strength training!

Good luck to you! I've been fighting my own set of exercise limiting circumstances and unfortunately, I did gain back a lot of the weight I lost.

BUT that's because I didn't adjust what I was eating to account for the calories I was no longer burning at the gym...and then I started to get angry and disappointed in myself for losing control---which led to emotional eating and more problems!!!!

Just make sure you check with your physical therapist and try to find some alternatives to get at least your upper body moving and make sure you just your calories accordingly! Also try to stay positive like Fitnesssocial mentioned--I know that would have done wonders for me!!!