Exercising with a torn meniscus

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wassergottin
wassergottin Posts: 154 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have a torn meniscus that is very unlikely to be fixed surgically so I am doing PT semi-weekly under my orthopedic doctor's orders. He told me that I shouldn't do anything that hurts, and I most definitely should not run, ride bikes, use the elliptical, roller skate, swim, do yoga (for legs), and walk further than I need to. It honestly hurts to walk about 1-2 km, so I'm not even doing that any more. This is a huge inconvenience since I was always in the gym, always out running, and I would hike/backpack/climb mountains every weekend.

So, I'm doing pull-ups and push-ups, but I was curious about some other exercises that will help keep me in shape whilst recovering. Has anyone else gone through this and been able to keep up their athletic routines?(within reason) I'm a bit bored of all the upper body workouts. Thanks!

Replies

  • Mistya81
    Mistya81 Posts: 29 Member
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    Hi there,

    I hurt my knee kickboxing on Nov 9, 2013, ended up in a big knee brace and then was told it was "fine" by a doc at a walk in clinic. Today I got a 2nd opinion and was told that it seems to be a torn meniscus. I'm going for an MRI to confirm. I was hoping that maybe somebody would have already replied to your post because I have the same question. I'm feeling very sorry for myself right now and am trying really hard to get over it. I was doing soooo good with kickboxing and this was going to be my 2nd year of learning to ski.

    Do you mind if I add you as a friend? I would love to hear how it goes and how you manage.

    Mistya
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
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    I am just a little curious. It hurts to walk 1-2 miles, but they are not going to do surgery. . . Why not? You shouldn't have to live with pain; that doesn't make sense.
  • wassergottin
    wassergottin Posts: 154 Member
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    It's only partially torn, and can be healed with time and care. I've been working with a physical therapist to improve it and it will take months to recover, but after 3 visits I've already noticed an improvement.

    @Mistya81 Of course you can add me! Whatever you do, don't do anything past the pain threshold of 1 in a 0-10 pain levels. It's your body's signal that something is seriously wrong and you are rubbing your wounded tendon against something and the tear is catching.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,049 Member
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    I tore my meniscus and it got better for a while, then worse again and finally it got to the point I couldn't work on my feet for more than three hours or so. Living on Ibuprofen wasn't cutting it anymore. Even PT didn't help at that point - I finally did the surgery.

    I first injured it when I was a teenager and didn't get the surgery till I was almost 40. Once my initial trauma healed (when I was a teen) I could do all normal stuff. Wear and tear over many years led to the final straw.

    You'll know when it's time. Every injury is different, so you'll just have to do the best you can with it.
  • LilRedRooster
    LilRedRooster Posts: 1,421 Member
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    I tore my meniscus last fall (twisting slightly to look at flowers, ironically..), and it took me a good 3 months of much lighter workouts to get back to where I can go and it doesn't hurt. I never had it repaired (because surgery is rather expensive and I'm currently uninsured), so I still wear a brace for support, but it's been a little over a year and I finally feel more comfortable doing more high-impact and twisting, which I haven't done since I tore it.

    Things I did while recovering for the first two to three months:

    1) Low-impact body-weight exercises. I still did things like squats, but I didn't go fully down (I didn't have ANY weight at ALL on the squats, just body weight and not full range of motion). I also did a lot of other body-weight oriented exercises, like pushups, pull-ups, wall-squats, etc., but I didn't add any weight at all.

    2) I actually did some basic workouts like TurboFire or Insanity but modified them so that I wasn't twisting or jumping, and didn't do full range of motion down. Depending on where your tear is (there are actually a few different types), you'll probably want to avoid both of those things, but especially twisting.

    Just remember to take it easy, and focus on babying it. If it feels too "easy", it's probably GOOD. I had to actually stop myself from running for the entire first three months, and didn't do any lower body weighted exercises for the same period. I was bored to tears, but babying it and making sure I wore a brace for support (along with ice and ibuprofen for swelling) really helped. It's so much better and rarely if ever bothers me now. I even did a Ragnar Relay with 20 miles (on Colorado mountains) back at the beginning of September, and it didn't hurt at all. Ironically enough I pulled a groin muscle, but my meniscus was pain-free, haha.

    Good luck!
  • MisterDerpington
    MisterDerpington Posts: 604 Member
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    Weighted Jump Squats.
  • GiddyupTim
    GiddyupTim Posts: 2,819 Member
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    I recently had ACL surgery and I have a torn meniscus. Boy, I wouldn't risk it. Better to be less active now and heal properly than overdo it and be less active for the rest of your life. I suspect any type of squats are not a good idea. There was a post here recently where I guy mentioned that he had a torn meniscus and his doctor told him, specifically, no more squats. (Now, granted, his situation might have been a bit different. This guy is huge, and he squatted very heavy weights.)
    Maybe you could swim? I wouldn't do anything without checking with the doctor first, however.

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