Cardio for disabled people

BigP3te
BigP3te Posts: 5
in Fitness and Exercise
A few yrs back I suffered from a torn quadriceps in my right leg the day after doing a heavy (560kg for 11 reps) leg press session. I've now got a disabled right leg in that the quadriceps is still completely ruptured and not attached, I can walk but I need to concentrate on keeping my right leg locked (Lock back position) when walking.

I goto the gym a minimum of 4 days a week, lifting is not a problem except that I cannot do squats, but the likes of back, shoulders, chest, arms etc are ok, I do still do leg presses, but the gym i goto only goes upto 200kg so with both legs i normally finish with a couple of sets of 40x200kg, and I'm able to press 20x130kg on single leg press with my disabled leg (hamstrings are still strong)

My problem is cardio, I'm trying to loose weight, but even though I do a fair bit of cardio I still cannot seem to shift belly fat.
My current cardio consists of at least an hour of Upper Body Bike, sometimes I up that to 1hr 20mins on a fairly vigorous setting and then increase that setting to the max for the last few minutes. to give a comparison, almost all other people who use the upper body bikes do so for 5 to 10 minutes on a difficulty setting of between 1 and 5, I do a minimum of 1hr on lvl 12 to 15, and then for the last 2-3 minutes max it out to lvl 20. A normal workout on the upper body bike covers around 28 -32km.. Do i need to do more cardio? Is the Technogym upper body bike ok for weight loss cardio or should I be using a normal stationary bike? I use the upper body bike mainly because a normal bike is uncomfortable around my knee after 15 - 20 minutes..

I do upper body bike before lifting weights, and I'm normally at the gym early AM, I've read loads on whether or not to do cardio in a fasting state to burn fat, but that seems to be inconclusive as to whether or not there's any benefit..

Any help / advice will be greatly appreciated

Replies

  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,208 Member
    Do i need to do more cardio?

    Fat loss requires a calorie deficit, so either do more cardio, reduce your calorie intake, or increase your non-gym activity level. Your choice.

    Can you get the quad tendon reattached?
  • BigP3te
    BigP3te Posts: 5
    Hi, thanks for replying, and sorry for not getting on here sooner.. .

    Unfortunately it took my GP 7 months to refer me to an orthopaedic consultant, and by that time it was apparently too late as the muscle when not attached shrinks and they didn't think it would stretch back, so my options were to either have my leg fused permanently straight or to undergo a muscle reconstruction that the consultant gave an 85-90% chance of failing. It was recommended that I carried on as I am, ie walking with a limp and hoping I don't encounter to many steps, stairs or falls..

    What I find confusing is that my calories for the day seem to have the fitbit and any calories burned via exercise added on,
    So take today for example, I have a calorie goal of 2760, i have -768 from breakfast and lunch, +638 from exercise which leaves me with 2612 remaining. I often have over 1000kcal a day remaining, is that what correct?
  • TheArchyBunker
    TheArchyBunker Posts: 1,967 Member
    Deficit means negative. If you have 2600 calories on the day and you eat 2600 calories on teh day and burn 700 calories from exercise than you have a deficit of -700 on the day ... that is where you get weight loss from. If you eat 2600 and burn 700 than eat 700 more you maintain you do NOT lose weight.

    That make sense?
  • reginanna
    reginanna Posts: 4 Member
    Have you tried the rowing machine? You can do that with one leg. You could also get bike shoes with cleats that clip into a stationary bike. That way you can also pull up and do most or all of the work with your healthy leg.
  • CamGoddess
    CamGoddess Posts: 28 Member
    I'm not disabled but I have pressure fracture.

    Thank you for the rowing advice! I think of the rower as an "old school" workout and need to check that out. ????

    Also I didn't think if cycling!

    So I have 4 aerobic activities on my list now:

    Swimming
    Arm bike
    Spinning
    Rowing machine


    Does anybody else have any other exercises they'd suggest?
    I can put some pressure in my feet, especially my heels, as long as I'm not doing something that requires my feet to support my whole weight (so no treadmill or elliptical) .....

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