Help with rehab

[willo]

Hey people,
I am recovering from a knee reconstruction and i am looking for advice from others who have experience on how to get back the muscle mass in my legs without damaging the graft.

I am 14 weeks into recovery and my physio last week said i can get into the weights and exercise again. The whole process has been really frustrating as i have gone from 185 pounds to 165 pounds since the injury (i'm 6ft 2inces) and i don't want to re injure the knee getting back into it.

Any advice will be much appreciated

 

[NEWBIE101]

Originally posted by willo
Hey people,
I am recovering from a knee reconstruction and i am looking for advice from others who have experience on how to get back the muscle mass in my legs without damaging the graft.

I am 14 weeks into recovery and my physio last week said i can get into the weights and exercise again. The whole process has been really frustrating as i have gone from 185 pounds to 165 pounds since the injury (i'm 6ft 2inces) and i don't want to re injure the knee getting back into it.

Any advice will be much appreciated

Well since I don't know how much recovered you really are I can't help you too much though.

I will say this though.

Do what you can. Start off light and don't frustrate your leg and build yourself back up to the strength you once were. When first coming back I would stick with some light isolation movements such as leg ext. and leg curls. Then once it gets stronger you can move to some leg presses and then eventually the king of all exercises SQUATS.

Hope this helps. If you have any questions then feel free to ask.

 

[willo]

Thx,
I'll try the leg extentions and leg curls at this stage; once i feel stable doing those, i'll run the leg presses and squats past my physio.
much appreciated

As to the stage of my recovery i have full range of movement when forced ie applying pressure on the back of the leg as you would when doing a quad streach. But as for normal leg bending i'm probably still 8 cms (which is approximately 3 inces) away from the other leg.
My main concern is the lack of muscle mass of the reconstructed quad and i am finding my other leg is gaining muscle mass much quicker than the injured leg through regular exercise (i must be favouring one leg). Also the outer side of the quad is gaining definition and mass quicker than the inner side this causes pain when walking for long periods (due to the knee cap moving slighly off to the side when moving).

So any exercises which work the inner side of the quads mainly would be much appreciated.
Ops it's a long one.
Cheers

 

[NEWBIE101]

For inner thighs-Hip adductions

For outer thighs-Hip abductions.

 

[chim_chim]

I would stay away from leg extensions personally, they can be hard on the repaired tissue. If you do them, make sure you don't move your leg down all the way, only about 45 degrees.

I had knee surgery in early September, if I could do it over I would work my VMO muscle harder(the "inside" part of the quad).

One good exercise involves elastic bands, the orthopedic trainer where you rehab should have some for free. What you do is get about a 3 foot length of the elastic band and tie it in a circle around something the height of your knee. Then stick your leg in the hole and align the elastic band tightly up against the back of your knee. Relax your leg and then flex it to a full extension, keeping your leg on the ground the whole time. It's hard to explain, but your leg should remain in virtually the same position the whole time, you're just tightening your leg muscles with the resistance from the band.