Exercise Advice please!

Hilly

Hilly

Hilly

Don
Joined
17 May 2004
Posts
12,804
Location
Telford, Shropshire
Brief background: Suffered an injury turning in football. Went to doctors they said rest it for 3 weeks, 4 weeks later I go back to the doc as it's not any better and he refers me to a specialist at the hostpial, this is expected to take a couple of months. So to speed things up, I booked a private appointment to see the Wolves physio (Barry Holmes - Top man) who diagnoses my problem as a ruptre of the lateral ligament in my left knee and that he would speak to the Man City surgeon for advice as he's only see it once in 26 years (just my luck).

He phones the Man City surgeon who suggests I get operated on and for the time being to put me in a metal knee brace.

Problem is now, I'm very very limited in what i can do. I've put on a stone in about 5 weeks and it's really getting on my ****!

What exercise can I do? Barry has said I can't run, or do any swimming as the knee isn't strong enough, but with me getting somewhat of a belly now, I'm desperate to shift it asap.

Any idea's on some form of exercise i can do? I'm pretty much out of idea's.

Thanks!
 
If you've got a gym membership you could always pop down the gym and provided you keep your knee protected and unstressed, do a high rep weights work out. Just as good as "traditional" cardio at getting a sweat on :) Machines would probably offer you the support you need as in general they totally isolate the muscles and joints in question. Plenty of compound exercises like chest press, lat pulldown, seated row, shoulder press etc perhaps even a bit of light single leg work on the good leg, keep it ticking over. The more large muscles you can recruit the more cals you'll burn ie. just doing bicep curls isn't the best course of action.

The real thing you should be looking at though is your diet. If because of this injury you've been unable to run and play football and you've gained weight its because you're eating too many calories. Try reducing your portion size or re-evaluate what it is you're eating. If you're down the pub more because you're feeling sorry for yourself then simple answer is cut it out. You need to eat a good balanced diet to help yourself recover, use that as motivation to eat right.
 
As suggested a high intense weight training session - should burn off some calories.
But I would have thought the most simple way would be to re-adjust your diet? I know that would probably hard to start with but if you watch what you eat and do some exercises I would have thought it would be no problem?
 
MTA99 said:
If you've got a gym membership you could always pop down the gym and provided you keep your knee protected and unstressed, do a high rep weights work out. Just as good as "traditional" cardio at getting a sweat on :) Machines would probably offer you the support you need as in general they totally isolate the muscles and joints in question. Plenty of compound exercises like chest press, lat pulldown, seated row, shoulder press etc perhaps even a bit of light single leg work on the good leg, keep it ticking over. The more large muscles you can recruit the more cals you'll burn ie. just doing bicep curls isn't the best course of action.

The real thing you should be looking at though is your diet. If because of this injury you've been unable to run and play football and you've gained weight its because you're eating too many calories. Try reducing your portion size or re-evaluate what it is you're eating. If you're down the pub more because you're feeling sorry for yourself then simple answer is cut it out. You need to eat a good balanced diet to help yourself recover, use that as motivation to eat right.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions. I've always been the skinny guy due to having a super high metabolism and doing a lot of exercise. It's not just hte weight I'm putting on, it's the feeling of exercising which I miss.

I'm 6ft2 and 13 stone (two weeks ago) I've never been over 12 in my life. Starting to get a belly so need to cut something out.

I'm not a big drinker, but will have to substitute some food I think, swap out the bad stuff for more fruit e.t.c

I'm interested in the exercises though, which is something I can look at. I've tried exercise bikes, but my knee isn't strong enough to push down on the pedal (my knee has like ZERO strength) which just limits a load of things that I could do. In terms of bulking up, I'm not interested in that, all I want is the pare tyre to go ;p

For example, swimming even though it's recommended for exercising when you have an injury, I can't do, do to my tearing my lateral ligament, it would just slap around in the water without any great deal of control.

Thanks for the suggestions, any more for any more please? :)
 
Clipsey said:
As suggested a high intense weight training session - should burn off some calories.
But I would have thought the most simple way would be to re-adjust your diet? I know that would probably hard to start with but if you watch what you eat and do some exercises I would have thought it would be no problem?
Click to expand...

Just to confirm really, I'm a pretty healthy eater, I do eat a lot, but it's good food, with lots of veg, fruits and non sugar items. Every one cna always eat healthier and even I can, but my diet isn't a huge problem. The problem is that I'm used to doing ~10 hours of running a week, or at least some hard exercise which I can't do at the moment.
 
Yeah thats bit of a **** really. I can only guess at how frustrating it would be! I mean I train 8 times a wk or so with lots of different activities and weights, and if I miss a couple in a wk it really annoys me for some reason.
Its a shame you cant even do swimming because thats normally the case for injuries. So can you do no movement what so ever with your knee? Like really light cross trainer, one legged rowing> lol? may work?

So I still think your best bet is to get into weight training - do you do this already? I mean after a good chest session of really pushing my self Im knackered! It really is a good calorie burner - do weights 3 times a wk or so will be better than nothing?
 
Clipsey said:
Yeah thats bit of a **** really. I can only guess at how frustrating it would be! I mean I train 8 times a wk or so with lots of different activities and weights, and if I miss a couple in a wk it really annoys me for some reason.
Its a shame you cant even do swimming because thats normally the case for injuries. So can you do no movement what so ever with your knee? Like really light cross trainer, one legged rowing> lol? may work?

So I still think your best bet is to get into weight training - do you do this already? I mean after a good chest session of really pushing my self Im knackered! It really is a good calorie burner - do weights 3 times a wk or so will be better than nothing?
Click to expand...

I might have to start weights. I don't do weights and never have, they just never have interested me. I've never wanted to bulk up or, or go for added definition.

I can do movement with my knee yes, I can walk, but with any type of walking the brace has to be on. With a cross trainer (which I've tried) I couldn't get the strength in my knee to push down on the pedal, the brace doesn't allow for the greatest of flexability either. I can sit down with my knees bent, but the knee as it has a bracket either side, with a metal bar down both sides of the knee, theres a pressure put onto the knee in a resistance type of way so it's uncomfortable and hard to adjust.

I've not been able to sit at my desk for any long periods today as it's been that bad.

i might have to look at doing some weights and getting some advice on that, I was just thinking more along the lines of typical cardio.

And yes, it's frustrating the hell out of me. I've not done any thing now for 5 weeks, I've got till 7th of October for an appointment at the hospital to have some scans e.t.c, then possibility of surgery and recuperation, so it will be the new year really before I can do any thing and I'll be the size of a house! :D
 
If you eat a balanced diet already and you've cut hours of training out your routine then you need to adjust your portion size. The way you're eating at the moment will be habit not necessity. If you've gained weight then you're eating too many calories. Make your meals slightly smaller (easiest to remove some carbs) and you'll find that you shouldn't actually feel hungry if the reduction isn't too big. Don't starve yourself, its counter productive, be progressive and you should find it slows if not stops the weight gain.

As for exercise, get down the gym and start lifting some weights :D As i said, machines are going to be your best bet. Free weights rely on using so many other muscle groups for stabilisation and if your knee is as bad as you say it is you really don't want to risk it.

Here's a few examples:

Chest - http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/PectoralSternal/LVChestPress.html

Shoulders - http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/DeltoidLateral/LVLateralRaise.html

Back - http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/BackGeneral/LVSeatedRow.html

More back - http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/LatissimusDorsi/LVFrontPulldown.html

Bicep - http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Biceps/LVCurl.html

Tricep - http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Triceps/LVPushdown.html

Traps - http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/TrapeziusUpper/LVSeatedShrug.html

Etc etc etc.

Depending on the machines available you might find some aren't possible with your knee but there's usually a way round the problem.
 
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