working out with a knee injury

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BIGSAL72
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working out with a knee injury

Post by BIGSAL72 »

I have two torn tendons in right knee. In order for me to keep fitness in check I HAVE to do cardio no if ands or buts about it. Before I injured knee I weighed 225 and was a freakin stud. The only cardio I can do is walking, biking, and heavybag workouts. Does anyone have any suggestions for cardio workouts?
Athene
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Re: working out with a knee injury

Post by Athene »

Rowing is a great idea. Can you bend your knee enough to use the machine?

Also: can you work out in a pool? When foot was broken this past year I did freestyle with a pull-buoy between legs and it was fairly effective. You could also try jogging in the shallow end if your knee can bear the weight without slowing down your healing time. Aquacise can also be an amazing cardio workout if you go all out - with the added bonus of working out with some tough old birds ; )
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Boss Man
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Re: working out with a knee injury

Post by Boss Man »

Exercise bike. One of few if not the only type of Cardio, that prevents most if not all the upper body weight loadbearing on the lower body, as the weight is channelled into the seat or saddle.

Rowing does create a lot of Knee flexion, which might not necessarily be good, whereas exercises Bike work causes less, as the Legs don't go backwards or forwards, so there's a lot less manuipulation of the Patellar region.

Swimming might be okay, but again, perhaps a little bit of an issue, as the Knee would be a primary component in the movement. If you had a serious problem with an Ankle, or muscle above the Knee or in the groin or a hip issue, I'd definitely say yes, to Swimming, but I'm a little concerend about it for Knee problems, but I would say try it and see. If it's okay, keep doing i if you like, but if you feel the levels of discomfort or pain are too severe stop.

Aquatic healing methods such as this, have been known to work quite well in both humans and animals, but they don't offer a guaranteed or foolproof solution, to musculoskeletal or connective tissue recovery rates and may in some circumstances, offer little therapeutic benefit at all.
Athene
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Re: working out with a knee injury

Post by Athene »

Boss Man wrote:Swimming might be okay, but again, perhaps a little bit of an issue, as the Knee would be a primary component in the movement. If you had a serious problem with an Ankle, or muscle above the Knee or in the groin or a hip issue, I'd definitely say yes, to Swimming, but I'm a little concerend about it for Knee problems, but I would say try it and see. If it's okay, keep doing i if you like, but if you feel the levels of discomfort or pain are too severe stop.

Aquatic healing methods such as this, have been known to work quite well in both humans and animals, but they don't offer a guaranteed or foolproof solution, to musculoskeletal or connective tissue recovery rates and may in some circumstances, offer little therapeutic benefit at all.
Swimming as a form of impact-free cardio is all I was suggesting, but what you're saying seems to be different from everything else I have heard, experienced, and seen!

The knee can be isolated very easily so that the injury is not exacerbated, and there is a lot of evidence that suggests swimming is the safest form of exercise for injured athletes due to the lack of impact. I have met many people who were referred to the pool by their doctors for post-injury or post-surgery rehabilitation to ease back into an exercise regimen... is there a chance that your information is either extremely outdated or extremely new? I'm sorry if I'm just totally ignorant and in the dark over here!
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Boss Man
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Re: working out with a knee injury

Post by Boss Man »

No, you may well be right, in that swimming is an injury healing action. I can agree, as swimming does have therapeutic benefitis, but conceren would be primarily for Patellar problems. If the problem was muscular like say an injured Thigh muscle, then Swimming would be good, but I'm not so sure for Knees, I think it might be a little less therapeutic than say for a Leg.

It's not a scientific respons,e more a gut feeling kind of response.
Athene
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Re: working out with a knee injury

Post by Athene »

Gotcha. Thanks for explaining your thinking a bit more. It does make sense to me that it would be more difficult to immobilize the knee, but I don't know enough about anatomy to speak to the patella at all, so I am happy to defer to you on that point. I guess our joint recommendation is: "Try it, but be really careful. If it hurts, just stop!" ; )
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Boss Man
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Re: working out with a knee injury

Post by Boss Man »

Yes exactly. some people may react to certain rehab methods better than others, depending on their overall physical state and exacting nature of the problem.
FitMeReena
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Re: working out with a knee injury

Post by FitMeReena »

Have you tried foam rolling and static stretches? This is a great article that provides 3 tips for self-managing knee pain: http://www.putmebacktogether.com/Home/P ... -Synd.aspx
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Re: working out with a knee injury

Post by Packard »

Speed bag and heavy bag work. The speed bag will help with cardio using the upper body.

The heavy bag will involve the back and some legs so really heavy hitting of the bag will stress the legs. You will have to keep that in mind when training. I think you can get thoroughly effective cardio training hitting both bags. Even though I do 20 minutes of stair master and 20 minutes of elliptical work four times a week, the heavy bag can get me winded in just a few minutes--especially when I'm hitting the bag really hard.

The heavy bag works the shoulders, biceps, traps, spinal erectors, femoral biceps and quadriceps and calves.

The speed bag works the shoulders, traps, neck, spinal erectors and biceps.

Both improve your reflexes and flexibility. But sloppy work on the heavy bag can cause hand and/or wrist injury--so start slowly.
henry88
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Re: working out with a knee injury

Post by henry88 »

Try some cardio workouts which has least inclusion of knees. Like range of motion exercises which reduces joint stiffness, eases joint movement. Strengthening exercises which helps to improve the muscles and strength the joint supports. Other than this you can prefer low impact exercises which are jogging, walking, yoga, cycling or swimming.
cjd0321
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Re: working out with a knee injury

Post by cjd0321 »

aquatic exercises saved me when I messed up hip a few months ago! i was a big runner and biker, but i had to switch to water aerobics and stuff to ease the pressure on hip. i read a couple articles that talked about continuing to run in shallow water, and i ended up doing a little of that. turns out it was really fun after i bought some aqua joggers because they weigh down your feet and make it a little bit more challenging. one of friends who had a similar experience recommended them to me - i got mine at ishoparia ( http://ishoparia.com/Fitness-and-Exerci ... quarunners ) but i bet you could find them a bunch of places.

moral of the story, water workouts tided me over but i'm glad to be back into running and cycling. :)
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