knee problems & exercizing

Katarina Visnar · 08-24-2011, 01:50 AM

Hi all,

I've been diagnosed a slight tear of the medial collateral ligament as well as upper lateral gastrocnemius of my right leg and have to keep away from weightlifting for ca. 6 months.

Now I'm gathering ideas on what's possible to do in this situation, what kind of exercize to take -- apart from stationary bicycle. I guess variations of pull-ups and push-ups plus some seated lifting (which exercizes?) would be the staple of my workouts, but how about bench pressing? Any thoughts, experience?

Cheers!

Steven Low · 08-24-2011, 06:25 AM

Anything upper body works.... what are your goals?

Katarina Visnar · 08-24-2011, 07:03 AM

Hi,

Well right now I'm re-defining my goals... my previous goals for 2011 were connected to improving my olympic lifts.

I put some weight on during the last 6-7 months, and I'd like to get that back to usual (lose 5-6 kg). I've adjusted my diet a couple of weeks ago, then re-adjusted it last week again... will see if it works.
One of my wishes - for which I never took time to actually realize - is to get my bench press above 60 kg. Currently my 1RM is somewhere around 55 kg (last result is 3 x 52.5 kg). Maybe now's the time? But I need to make sure this won't compromise my leg recovery.
Push-ups and pull-ups...? Here's room for improvement, I was never really good at these. I was able to get 3 strict or 10 kipping pull-ups in a row... and around 10 push-ups in a row... don't think I could do the same right now.

Steven Low · 08-25-2011, 06:15 AM

Well, there ya go. You have some good upper body goals to work towards... just build a routine around them.

Daniel Morgan · 10-10-2011, 01:17 PM

Just avoid any exercise that may hurt your leg, remember health is always more important, doesn't really matter if you don't do much these next months, but to stay healthy is what really matters.

Donald Lee · 10-10-2011, 04:07 PM

Dieting is probably a bad idea. You will lose muscle in your legs, whether you diet or not, due to lack of strenuous activity. Adding dieting to that will only make it worse. Dieting also slows recovery time.

It's important to continue to do activities that will promote blood flow to your leg and does not cause pain-like biking, water aerobics or swimming, etc.

Katarina Visnar · 10-10-2011, 10:09 PM

Thanks for the input, guys.
I'm about to go to the MRI scan this week - both knees.

I'm doing bench & shoulder presses + some assistance exercises twice a week, while anything involving leg muscles & joints (i.e. light stationary bike) provokes something of a reaction in my legs - not pleasant, so I hope the MRI scan will show what's going on in there. The doc suspects I might have a meniscus rupture.
And yes - one wouldn't believe how much dystrophy of leg muscles can happen in a rather short period of time.

Katarina Visnar · 11-08-2011, 11:51 PM

Hi all,

I'm now waiting for arthroscopy of both of my knees, due to menisci / patellas injury. The orthopedist told me yesterday that it is not clear if I will be able to do heavy weightlifting afterwards - the reason being the possible wear of patellas (Chondropathia patellae utq).

What I would like to find out is the following: is it possible that the wear of patellas could be the result of a long-time long-slow-distance activities in the past rather than weightlifting during the past 3 years? I never had any problems with my knees during my weightlifting period, while I couldn't claim the same about my long-slow-distance period of life.

Does anyone know about cases of successful recovery and return to lifting weights after such a diagnosis?

How about adding glucosamine / chondroitin / MSM? I know the wear is irreversible, but could adding these supplements help - and how?

My problems started in July after a bicycle accident - I fell of my bike and hurt my right knee. First medical diagnosis was related to the ligament and muscle tear, but it all got more complicated afterwards...