Cardio in a Knee Brace??

[JohnUC33]

Well, I tweeked my knee, and my doctor has put in a knee brace for about two weeks. In the meantime, I really don't wanna gain a bunch of weight. I know I can still lift weights with a knee brace (the kind that doesn't allow you to bend the knee), but what else can I do to get some good quality cardio in? Any ideas would be appreciated.

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[DJAmmz]

Hmm, good question. do some easy swimming stuff that doesn't invovle heavy use of knee bending - ie. front crawl w/out kicking (this really gives you a good workout btw)?

I didn't do ****-all last August til November when my ACL was reconsrtucted. I gained 23 lbs But I finally got pissed and dropped all that, and then some. 42 lbs. down feels wicked.

What did you do to injure it in the first place?

 

[JohnUC33]

Hmm, good question. do some easy swimming stuff that doesn't invovle heavy use of knee bending - ie. front crawl w/out kicking (this really gives you a good workout btw)?

I didn't do ****-all last August til November when my ACL was reconsrtucted. I gained 23 lbs But I finally got pissed and dropped all that, and then some. 42 lbs. down feels wicked.

What did you do to injure it in the first place?

Not really too sure. About a month ago, I twisted it funny getting into bed (wth? huh). Well, I stayed off of it for about a week and did the whole ice, Ibprofen thing. It got better, and I've been running and doing martial arts on it. Yet, I went running this morning, and it was hurting (mainly a stiffness along the left lateral side). I work in the ER, and I had to do a lot of running around for a code that came in so that made the pain/stiffness worse. It was just getting worse and worse so I asked the doctor on duty about what to do. So he gave me the above posted advice. Ahh, just anything to avoid some freakin surgery though.

 

[JohnUC33]

bump....help a brotha out

 

[DJAmmz]

Stiffness on the left lateral side? Get that checked out, seriously. When I first dislocated my knee I walked it off and 2 days later I was doing agressive basketball workouts again. Big mistake. Had I waited just another 24 hrs for the scan report to come back, I would have known I had a MCL tear and I wouldn't be walking aorund with two titanium screws in my damn leg today 😡 . If I were you, I would get it looked at ASAP. Don't risk anything with your knee man, it's a huge pain afterwards... Get a MRI or something done. Although I know getting a MRI scan date with your situation might be a bit difficult (Clearly, your ER doc and others will see you're situation as being a minor discomfort, but the stiffness warrants a serious checkup).

Good luck!

 

[JohnUC33]

thanks man. i might just do that if it ain't any better by the end of the week. Hey, did the stiffness radiate to the distal anterior patella as well for you?

 

[MossPoh]

You could do HIIT if you have a partner to lift with as well. After about an hour of that I am generally fried and couldn't do cardio if I wanted to. Just keep your HR spiked the entire time and keep moving or hobbling. Other that that you could do rowing if you just kept your legs stiff, swimming (just stick the foam between your legs, put some paddles on your hands and pull), sometimes there are hand cycles where you just crank away. I have to tape my knees all the time for workouts, especially any squats exceeding 350 lbs. I stay away from stuff that involves fixed ranges of motion more than anything....treamills, those damn elipticals any of that kind of stuff that I'm forced on a bit of a track hurt my knees. Which leaves me with swimming most of the time though.

 

[JohnUC33]

You could do HIIT if you have a partner to lift with as well. After about an hour of that I am generally fried and couldn't do cardio if I wanted to. Just keep your HR spiked the entire time and keep moving or hobbling. Other that that you could do rowing if you just kept your legs stiff, swimming (just stick the foam between your legs, put some paddles on your hands and pull), sometimes there are hand cycles where you just crank away. I have to tape my knees all the time for workouts, especially any squats exceeding 350 lbs. I stay away from stuff that involves fixed ranges of motion more than anything....treamills, those damn elipticals any of that kind of stuff that I'm forced on a bit of a track hurt my knees. Which leaves me with swimming most of the time though.

Thanks for the advice. I admit that I'm ignorant to the acronym HIIT. What does it mean exactly? Thanks.

 

[PublicEnemy]

HIIT is high intensity interval training. It's designed to keep your heart rate way up. Basically when doing cardio, you alternate between 60 seconds of moderate pace and 30seconds to 1min of a much faster pace where your heart rate is near maximum.

 

[MossPoh]

You can transfer the ideas over to weight lifting as well. Especially if you do any bigtime draining exercises and just keep moving. The only problem is that a lot of the truly training high intensity ones involve legs in some way. (Deadlift, Squats, Box Squats) but it can also be done with bench, pullups, dips..pretty much anything that gets a good heartrate going...Using chains or elastic bands while hopping between exercises really did it for me. There was a period where I did no official cardio at all for 6 months..just my powerlifting style training with less of an interval between sets and I wound up dropping from about 12 to 9 percent bf and gained about 10 lbs of muscle. Which 10 lbs of muscle equaled a hell of a spike in the one rep maxes. I know not everyone is into the blood and pain type thing though so I suggesst just sticking with something very easy on joints like swimming. If you never swim then start out with like a light stretch and a 100 freestyle/backstroke just to get warmed up. Then the first time just keep it easy but push yourself. Do maybe 10x50's, and 10x25's (stroke of choice but freestyle with low level kicking or the foam to keep your legs from swimming will probably be best). After 2 days of that you can gradually up it. I generally did long distance swimming which involved 500 after 500 and during my practice a 200 was like our sprint. We also did lots of underwater work with the general goal of being able to swim 50 to 75 meters underwater without breathing. If you can do that then you'll be pleasantly surprised how easy running is...aside from the soreness that may be there. Oh man...flashing back to those swim practices with the 20x500's, 1650's or the mandatory 100x100's once a year (while wearing jeans) ...good times. *cough*

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

Well, I tweeked my knee, and my doctor has put in a knee brace for about two weeks. In the meantime, I really don't wanna gain a bunch of weight. I know I can still lift weights with a knee brace (the kind that doesn't allow you to bend the knee), but what else can I do to get some good quality cardio in? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Dont worry about the cardio. Control your calories (BW*12) and you will not gain weight.

 

[MossPoh]

In the perfect world people control calories on top of exercising.lol I am realistic and know that doesn't happen but still. You'd be surprised what lack of exercise does to you. I haven't been able to lift for about 5 months..only eating less but I find myself so much more aggressive and stressed out in general.....Exercise really probably keeps me from hurting someone else. 😛

 

[DOctorJay]

If you can't do anything with your leg find an arm ergometer. This is a great cardio exercise even though it may not seem like it. It's basically like riding a bike with your arms, we put pts on this after an amputation or SCI when they're ready to build endurance/work on cardio.

J

 

[JohnUC33]

Thanks everyone for all the good advice. Good news, the MRI results came back negative...so the doc said my knee should be fully functional in a few weeks. Just gotta use these tips and keep the pounds off till then 😀