I have an old injury to my right knee…about 10 years ago I tore my Anterior Cruciate LIgament…(ACL). Had physical therapy, tra la, life goes on.
Well, it is acting up, and in doing so it is putting me in a catch-22: certainly part of the reason it is acting up is because of my enormous weight. Fair enough. However, to lose the weight I need to be active. And the knee is acting up in such a manner that it is making it nearly impossible even to SWIM!
It is not a persistent pain as though the injury were fresh, though. It becomes stiff and sore if I sti tiwht it bent for longer than 5 minutes. It is weak in that knocking the leg on the inside, the aforementioned swimming, etc. can cause it to “go out” on me. For just a few minutes, but then if I try to keep swimming or walking or whatever, it keeps going out.
All this to say… I need to get it fixed up and healed! I gots to be able to swim or walk or do whatever in order to get this weight off. But the knee is complaining when I do anything for very long.
I don’t remember what the physical therapy was, its been too long. Does anyone have any tips?
Wow, this sounds familiar. Most of my therapy involved holding onto the edge of a pool and kicking to build up leg strength, followed by a light weight around my ankle while raising and lowering my foot. I recently went to see a doctor about excersizing on my bad knee and it was suggested I lose as much excess weight I can with proper diet and doing excersizes in the pool before doing any kind of impact excersize.
Sorry, but that’s all the help I can give. Could you maybe check with a doctor first and ask about it, since our injuries may be different?
I feel for you, Stoid. I’ve got a bad knee and the need to lose some weight to improve it.
There are some antiinflammatory drugs that work fairly well to control the pain so you can at least function and do some exercise. The downside is that you can make it worse by overworking the knee because you can’t feel pain. I’ve found the newer cox-2 inhibitors (Celebrex, especially) to be a godsend.
It is a non-medicinal method that can dramatically reduce the amount of pain you experience (YMMV). It has no negative interactions with any other medicine you may be taking. The less pain, the more incentive to be active. Be sure to “wake up” or warm up your limbs before excercising. Do some rotations of your foot and twists of your leg. Pull all of the muscles into place before working out. Theraputic massage can do wonders and is non-medicinal as well.
I’ve thought alot about a brace, but I can’t get one off the shelf, because my legs are too big.
I think I may just have to put the ol’ medical insurance to use and see a doc. What kinda doc is it…osteopath? If I was gonna get surgery, [sub](which I’m definitely not. Ever. Unless it is a choice between surgery and death. And even then, I wanna be hooked up to every new-fangled brain monitor on the planet. Some of you may know why I feel this way.)[/sub] I know I’d see an orthopedic surgeon…but what’s the non-surgical type of doc for the same problems? I did a GOOGLE and I didn’t come up with anything…
I have pretty much the same problem. I don’t know how bad your knee is, but if it can take it, I highly recommend exercise bikes, set on low resistance. It’s a good workout for calorie burning, and it strengthens the muscles around the knee, which will help a lot. Bikes are leg-intensive, of course, but they don’t stress your knee the way running does because you are not landing on the knee.
I also like rowing machines, it feels like more of an all-body workout to me.
I believe they are simply an orthopaedist. Or Orthopedist.
I’m seeing a doc to be evaluated for orthodics and they told me the doc I will be seeing is a physiatrist, which is a “physician who is a specialists in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation.” Maybe that’s what you want. Good luck!
I got really bad knees. Both have been scoped, and I have a pretty good idea of what helps and what doesn’t. I’ll be running a marathon in a couple of weeks, so you can get them working again if you’re careful.
Here’s some more tips. I hope they help.
Don’t lock your knee when you stand, ever.
Make sure you’re pointing your feet straight ahead.
Get rid of heeled shoes. Wear supports in your shoes.
Fat is smushy. It can be your ally. Braces stretch and once you get that bad boy on there, the fat will help keep it in place.
If you really can’t find a neoprene brace, an Ace Bandage helps some. They have directions in them to show how to wrap them. Just kind of wrapping everything in there with a little compressive pressure helps tremendously, and it locks in some body heat which helps healing.
See an orthopedist. Better yet, see a sports Doctor. They’ll fix you up with a custom brace, that will make your life a lot happier. They may also be able to recommend some gyms that cater to rehabilitative medicine (and maybe get your insurance to pay for your gym membership.)
Don’t use a rowing machine or a cycle. They are hard on the knees. A nordic track is fairly nice, and low impact. It’s also a great machine to lose weight on, as your body weight doesn’t disadvantage you in using it.
Work on posture and bearing. Being overweight and having a bad knee tends to throw you seriously out of kilter in this, and can add to your problems.
You can stay awake for most knee surgeries these days, so don’t sweat the anesthesia.
If you feel you need/want to lose some weight, you actually CAN start even before you are able to be more active. My boyfriend and I are both members of Weight Watchers, and while I am skeptical in the extreme of commercial weight loss plans, this one is sane and healthy. Best of all, you will start to lose weight even without exercise (although ideally you should be exercising as well).
I lost my first 55 pounds without doing any exercise at all beyond normal daily activities. (I’ve since mended my ways and added in 30 minutes of cardio 5 days a week.) My boyfriend has lost 103 pounds and his physical activity has been to walk 40 miles every week. While you will almost surely never achieve a healthy body within a normal weight range without doing some form of physical activity, if you’re currently morbidly obese, it’s possible to shed some of the first few pounds by controlling diet alone, or with only low-impact, light exercise.
If you’re not already doing it, you should add weight lifting into your fitness program.
Common misconception: “But I’m trying to lose weight and lifting will just make me gain muscle and therefore more weight.”
Wrong. It takes more calories to maintain muscle than fat Therefore increasing your muscle mass, increases your resting metabolic rate.
See a trainer for a sensible way to get into weight lifting.
Although as a general statement, I prefer free weights, you need to be careful when injured or when starting a weight lifting program. Nautilus-style machines that isolate the body part being worked are around for nearly every body part. These machines are great.
Obviously, take it easy on the knees. No squats or leg presses, except as directed by a physical therapist or MD.
Also, for cardio, I like ellipse machines and cross-trainers (ellipse machines with handles). These don’t bother my knees or back too much (both of which suffer from chronic injuries).
Drillrod:
I’m totally hip to the weight training benefits, have been for years. (A common misconception is that fat people are clueless about healthy diet and proper exercise when in fact they usually know more than than naturally slim people do because it’s much more a topic in our lives!)
Just as a general comment, I’m VERY intrigued by ** SuperSlow** …have you heard of it? It’s been tested, it works, and it makes a whole bunch of sense if you understand the physiology of muscle building. I don’t buy the idea that it’s all the exercise one needs, but to build muscle and strength, it’s very appealing.
Stoid, ref: Super Slow, heard about it a few weeks ago from the Army Times (newspaper for us Army folks) and checked out the web site.
Love the idea. Work out once, really intense-like, for 30 minutes or so every week-to-week-and-a-half. What’s not to like?
Not so sure I’m buying it, though, as it goes against most of what I’ve ever been told about fitness.
Wish I could find a certified SuperSlow trainer as the web site discusses the principles , but not any specific workouts.
Personally, I’d love to try it if I could get away with it.
Of course, being in the Army, I don’t think the First Sergeant is goint to buy, “But I don’t need to run anymore. And by the way, PT 5 days a week is way too much!”
Stoid,
You may want to recheck sources for your support - see if the local university’s football team has a source. I know a guy who was up to 425 who had a brace. It wasn’t custom, but he did have to order it. The huge sizes are made, but most stores don’t stock them.
And if you are worried about anesthetics, they may be able to scope your knee under a local.
I’m looking at one coming up eventually, but I’m too much a coward, may go general.
I had my ACL rebuilt about 12 years ago. It was a fairly intrusive operation (about 10 inches of scars in total) in those days, I don’t know if they can do it by scope now or not. I had a very good rehab program and they had me on a stationary bike as soon as I had enough range of motion. Cycling is very good for knees if the bike is set up properly. Make sure the seat is at the right height and use low gears (or low resistance on a stationary bike) and high RPMs.
