Tough road back

[Gearloose]

I'm having a heck of a time getting back to the fitness levels I was at prior to my December knee injury and February illness. The left knee still causes me pain, and has been joined by similar problems with the right knee. The cartilage in both knees were seriously injured in separate incidents over 30 years ago. My doctor thinks it is a reinjury of that old cartilage damage combined with some arthritis and age related thinning of the cushioning between the bones. I don't know if I'll ever be able to do a 340 lb squat (my PR) again, let alone meet my goal of squatting 400+ by the end of 2006. I may be lucky to squat 225 again.

The good news is that I've been able to get back on my trike and resume cardio workouts. The level of intensity is way down though. Any attempt to pedal too hard causes knee pain. I did mamage a good 5 mile ride yesterday evening with only minor knee twinges. I just did it at 8 to 10 mph instead of my usual 12-16 mph with sprints to 25 mph.

My endurance in the gym has been way down too. It started to come back a few weeks after I got out of the hospital, but it dropped off again. It's once more starting to come back. I cut back to only one upper body day a week in the gym just to keep from losing all my upper body gains. My bench press went from 230 lb prior to the illness to 175 afterwards. It's back up to 205x5 now. I'm going back to 2 days upper body workout per week and a very modified (read that as low impact) 2 days lower body workout starting Monday.

I've now got a few pounds of belly fat to burn off that I gained the last couple of months. My waist went from 37.5 inches to 39 inches simply from not being able to burn off the calories.

This has been a hard climb back............

[Vas85]

Hey Gearloose, wish u the best to hitting your PR's again in the future, i'm sure eventually you'll be ontop of it all, slowly but steadily youll get back.

I've had a tricep injury or kind-of-one, that limited me from training triceps where the forearm would move, but upper-arm stationary i.e. skull crushers etc.. so i had to do dips for a good 2 months.

What exactly do you do for your leg day workouts, maybe you can modify it slightly to relieve the pressure on the knee's yet still give you mass gains in the legs.

[.V.]

Gearloose - these things do take time to heal. It's only been a few months. Just work it easy until you get back to full ability. I know all about starting over - it does suck. But it beats the hell out of giving up and not keeping on going. Perhaps instead of full squats you could do some smith machine squats or some leg presses? I don't think leg extensions would be too good of an alternative though.

And if you can't manage the higher intensity rides, then just do the lower intensity ones and go further.

Hang in there. You've came a long way and you'll get it all back.

[Bulwark]

Bro, whatever you do, don't give up! All situations are different and doctors are too. Get a mental second opinion and defy all the negativity of your doc. You know where you were once. You know what you can do now, just find the path to link the 2 again.

[Gearloose]

Originally Posted by Bulwark

Bro, whatever you do, don't give up! All situations are different and doctors are too. Get a mental second opinion and defy all the negativity of your doc. You know where you were once. You know what you can do now, just find the path to link the 2 again.

Thanks for the encouragement! I've been riding two or three times a week as weather permits. Some days there is no knee pain and I get in 6 or 8 miles. Other days, the knees throb and I cut the ride short at two or three miles. I'm not doing any sort of lower body workouts in the gym right now to try and allow plenty of time to heal.

Welcome back Gearloose!

You have lots of muscle memory from your fitness transformation efforts that will benefit you in round two. As you resume your efforts, just remember that something is better than nothing. Work around your injuries and limitations. Maybe 10% of your body is hurting. That means that 90% is not. There's tremendous potential to work with that.

Why don't you chronicle your round two efforts in the online journal section. You'll have lots of readers encouraging you on and privately cheering for you.

Have a great day!

[.V.]

Originally Posted by Bulwark

Bro, whatever you do, don't give up! All situations are different and doctors are too. Get a mental second opinion and defy all the negativity of your doc.

Well said there. If I had listened to the doc way back when I was down, I'd be a big fat guy in a wheelchair right now. So I changed docs and got a new plan.

Definitely work within your limits - you know where you were and how to get back there and beyond. I agree with pierini about chronicling your efforts in your online journal - it can be a good way to work past these setbacks.

Hang in there man...you are missed.

[Gearloose]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

Well said there. If I had listened to the doc way back when I was down, I'd be a big fat guy in a wheelchair right now. So I changed docs and got a new plan.

Definitely work within your limits - you know where you were and how to get back there and beyond. I agree with pierini about chronicling your efforts in your online journal - it can be a good way to work past these setbacks.

Hang in there man...you are missed.

I rode 7.5 miles this evening, and would have rode another couple of miles except my trike lighting battery pack started to give out. It was almost an hour after sundown, so I headed home. I had to take a couple of Aleve for the knees when I got home. I recently started taking a stronger dose of MSM for my joints, so maybe it'll help the knees too.

Right now, I'm more interested in triking than lifting as I really need to burn off about 10 pounds. I haven't strayed too far off the diet, but my level of activity has been way down the last couple of months.

I can empathize with your frustrations over this Gearloose. Here is to hoping you find a way around them.