(no subject)
I continue to think about all the things you could do to work out that don't entail use of your legs/knees. Or make use of your legs, without involving your knees.
Knees are hard to isolate around - because they're always there and you can't really completely ignore/exclude them. But I've been dinking around all week with things to keep working my hip flexors and quads and hamstrings while mostly or somewhat excluding my knees. Funny thing with ACLs is that while there's pain and swelling to deal with, and limitations in flexing/extending (like walking is hiccupy because I can't extend all the way, but still doable) - so long as i don't do any twisting or pounding/impact/running stuff it's ok.
Case in point - i just took the dogs to Bassett's Creek where there's this awesome steep hill (probably 2 flights high) that I s/times run up and down for workouts. Obvi running is not workable at the moment, so I thought "hey I'll just slowly and deliberately walk up and down, see how that feels." And what I found was that walking at such a steep incline, even fast - just short of outright running, was totally doable and didn't fuck with the already injured part of my knee.
Going up allowed my knee to remain in a neutral non-hurting position at all times so that I was never extending or flexing so much as to get into either of the hurtful ranges. Then going down I took really small but fast steps, which was an awesome quad workout without fucking with the acl issue. I did 10 up/downs of the hill - then walked another mile+ with the dogs, and did push ups at the benches along the way.
Legs aside (and I won't be able to any on-leg stuff post-surgery for a few weeks) - I've been lifting weights and doing pushups & abs while watching NCIS or SVU after work this week. I'm a lazy asshole - but I figure I sure as fuck can do all that while I'm watching NCIS. I've got some ankle weights that I've been using to do some hip-flexor, hamstring and quad lifts which I'm able to do w/out hurting or mostly even involving my acl/knee.
So is good - I'll work to keep limber and in-shape and cardio-worked up until surgery, then back to it as soon after that as possible.
Knees are hard to isolate around - because they're always there and you can't really completely ignore/exclude them. But I've been dinking around all week with things to keep working my hip flexors and quads and hamstrings while mostly or somewhat excluding my knees. Funny thing with ACLs is that while there's pain and swelling to deal with, and limitations in flexing/extending (like walking is hiccupy because I can't extend all the way, but still doable) - so long as i don't do any twisting or pounding/impact/running stuff it's ok.
Case in point - i just took the dogs to Bassett's Creek where there's this awesome steep hill (probably 2 flights high) that I s/times run up and down for workouts. Obvi running is not workable at the moment, so I thought "hey I'll just slowly and deliberately walk up and down, see how that feels." And what I found was that walking at such a steep incline, even fast - just short of outright running, was totally doable and didn't fuck with the already injured part of my knee.
Going up allowed my knee to remain in a neutral non-hurting position at all times so that I was never extending or flexing so much as to get into either of the hurtful ranges. Then going down I took really small but fast steps, which was an awesome quad workout without fucking with the acl issue. I did 10 up/downs of the hill - then walked another mile+ with the dogs, and did push ups at the benches along the way.
Legs aside (and I won't be able to any on-leg stuff post-surgery for a few weeks) - I've been lifting weights and doing pushups & abs while watching NCIS or SVU after work this week. I'm a lazy asshole - but I figure I sure as fuck can do all that while I'm watching NCIS. I've got some ankle weights that I've been using to do some hip-flexor, hamstring and quad lifts which I'm able to do w/out hurting or mostly even involving my acl/knee.
So is good - I'll work to keep limber and in-shape and cardio-worked up until surgery, then back to it as soon after that as possible.