Re: RideCamp: Comeback After Injury

[Jerry & Susan Milam <milamj@agtelco.com>]

Helga,

How's your range of motion at the knee? Can you get your knee to at
least 90 degrees?

If you were in PT, they would be developing strength through "closed
chain" exercises most likely.  These exercises are done in various
balance postions: stand with you back against the wall, move your feet
out about 12 inches and slide your back down allowing your knees to bend
slightly. Try to keep weight evenly distributed between the knees. Slide
down only as low as you feel capable of holding that position for a
count of 10...then push yourself back up the wall. Do that as many times
until your quads on the front of your thigh burn. The eventual goal
would be to move your feet 18-24" away from the wall and be able to
slide down far enough to appear you are sitting in a chair that isn't
there. Same amout of time in the hold position...same goal of burning.
You can progress to longer holds also up to 60 seconds...that really
burns!

After you get good with that you can move to small "lunges". That will
really work on your balance. You may not want to do it until your
fixator is removed. Picture a fencing match. Keep your trunk always
vertical..never lean forward. Take a baby step and slightly bend your
knees and hold that position...count of 10. Now, step with the other
leg. You gradually take larger steps and deeper bends...yes and longer
holds. Do this slowly...they are real quad killers.

That should take care of your quad side of the thigh. Your hamstrings
need work too. I don't know where you can buy theraband, but that's what
you would be using in PT...kind of a big rubber band. Hook it around
something that won't move at ankle level. Sit in a chair opposite the
attachment of theraband. Hook the theraband around your ankle and
position yourself so you start pulling against the band with your knee
almost fully extended. Do pulls and hold for 5 counts. Do this till your
hams burn also. If you can't find theraband, ankle weights will do
working against gravity in a standing position. Raise your ankle by
bending your knee to a height equal to your knee and hold.

I hope you can understand these instructions. I'm an occupational
therapist and work daily with PTs at my work, so I'm sort of qualified
to instruct you in these. As long as you are not restricted by only
partial weight bearing status, these should be fine for you to begin
strengthening. If you hurt alot doing these, your cartilage surface in
the knees may be too tender yet. Of course if you get increased swelling
you want to back off as well.

Any questions or clarifications, please let me know.

Happy Training!

Susan


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=