It Keeps Me Running
As mentioned in my last post, I had the 4-week follow up with the orthopedic surgeon this past Monday. He said the knee looked good, and made sure to point out the disparity in muscle mass between my legs. The doctor emphasized that I will need to still take things slow while I regain both muscle strength and muscle endurance. That said, I was cleared for all activities.
Monday evening, Jacob’s baseball team had their first practice, and since I’m an assistant coach, I had to be out there too. Our practice field sucks. It is rocky, it is uneven—not a good surface at all, especially if you’ve recently had knee surgery. (On the other hand, if you can field the ball cleanly on that surface, you can field the ball on any surface.) After an hour and a half of walking and standing on that field, my knee was sore, so I didn’t do any additional workout. Instead, I saved that for Tuesday.
On Tuesday evening, I spent 10 minutes on the bike, 10 minutes on the elliptical, and then 15 minutes on the treadmill. I started off on the treadmill with a minute of walking, followed by a minute of jogging. I repeated this until I reached 15 minutes total on the treadmill. It felt good, but tiring. I finished out the workout with full body strength training, in circuit fashion, 3 times around.
Yesterday evening was another baseball practice, and a day off from working the knee. At this stage, as I work my way back into shape, I feel that it is extremely important that I allow my body to have a day to recover between workouts. The knee was a little sore during the day, but not bad. After baseball practice it was much more sore. I took some ibuprofen and called it a night.
Today the knee has felt great. I even took the stairs up in the parking garage (4 levels). I also went back to the gym this evening. Again, I started off with the bike, but only 5 minutes this time. Next, I moved to the treadmill, where I walked for 1 minute, and then jogged at 6 mph for 10 minutes (or 1 mile), followed by 4 minutes of walking, for an even 15 minutes. I then hopped on the elliptical for 20 minutes of high cadence cross-training, followed by a couple of minutes cool down. After that, it was on to strength training, but tonight I only did lower body—high reps, light weight. Aside from fighting off a side stitch while I was jogging, this was a good workout, and it goes without saying the knee felt good.
I will continue focusing on rebuilding my muscle strength and endurance, while gradually working my cardiovascular system back into shape, along with my running legs. Oh, one last thing from the doc—it will likely take 2 more months until I have enough strength and endurance built back up to return to my pre-injury effort level.
By
Bryan
at
10:55 PM
, in
Health and Fitness
-
Permalink
Comments
(1) -
TrackBack (0)