QUAD ACTIVATION!!!
I can lift my leg straight up…
Thanks for the concern fellas… It feels more like a bone bruise on the right inside of my shin… And the pain in my foot feels more like a muscle strain from trying to move my leg…
My hamstring is dying. I feel like I’m pulling it every hour. Even the slightest slip or movement can tweak it, and with all the god damn snow and ice its almost impossible to avoid the occasional misplant of my foot.
I’ve started lower-body workouts again, here’s my workout for yesterday:
-squats - 12, 10, 8, 6, 12, 10, 8, 6 ~95-105lbs
-snatch from hang - 8,8,8,8,8,8,8,8 ~45-65lbs
-deadlift - 12,10,8,6 ~95lbs
-step-ups - 8, 8, 8, 8 bodyweight, l. leg only
So I’ve lost about 130lbs on my squat and about 200lbs on my deadlift. I feel like I could do more weight and close that gap but the knee doesn’t feel very stable and my hammie is a mess.
Yeah be careful with the lifting… Don’t rush it… That being said, I can’t wait to get back in the gym…
Finally slept through the night…
I had that exact same bone bruise feeling on my inside shin. The therapist explained that spot is where the hamstring joins with the lower leg. Because the upper leg and knee are messed up it is creating stress on that region. 3 weeks later that spot is still tender for me.
Measured myself - my legs are back up to 23" and even on both legs now. Belly and hips are the same so my weight seems to have stabilized. I’m going to do strength gain for the this week and 2 more weeks to get my legs back in shape, but then I think I’m going to do a fat loss phase.
So crx, that got me thinking, you said you wanted to do v-diet… so how about this… once you’re ready from your rehab lets do it at the same time. I mean v-diet is going to be a piece of cake after ACL surgery!
This is my new workout
Monday Torso 1
A
Bentover Barbell Row 8 sets of 5,4,3,5,4,3,2,1
OVERSPEED Chins 8 sets of 5
Rest 150 sec
B 8 sets of 5,4,3,5,4,3,2,1
Bench Press
Push Press
Rest 150 sec’s
C -
2-arm swings - 10/10/8
DB Lateral Raise - 12/12/12
Tuesday Leg 1
Squat - 12,10,8,6,12,10,8,6
Step-up - 8 x6
rest 150 sec’s
B - 8 sets of 12,10,8,6
Deadlift -
Snatch from Hang
rest 150 sec’s
C Walking Lunges to fail
Wed Torso Shoulder
A1 - 12, 10, 8, 6
Lat Pulldown
Incline Hammer Grip DB Bench
B1 - 12, 10, 8, 6
DB Hammer Grip Shoulder Press
Seated Low Pulley Rope to Neck
Friday Arm Day
A - 10,8,6,10,8,6
Close-grip Bench
Preacher
B - 12, 10, 8, 6
Decline DB tricep Ext.
B2 Hammer Curl (standing)
C - 8,8,8
Rope Pressdowns
EZ Bar Reverse cable curls
Saturday Leg 2… one leg!
A -
Snatch Hanging - 6,4,2,6,4,2
Explosive Step-Ups - 8,8,8,8,8,8
B -
Power clean - 6,4,2,6,4,2
single leg, leg press - 10, 8, 6, 10, 8, 6
C -
Bulgarian Squat - 10, 10, 10
Leg Curl - 10, 10, 10
[quote]dboy wrote:
Measured myself - my legs are back up to 23" and even on both legs now. Belly and hips are the same so my weight seems to have stabilized. I’m going to do strength gain for the this week and 2 more weeks to get my legs back in shape, but then I think I’m going to do a fat loss phase.
So crx, that got me thinking, you said you wanted to do v-diet… so how about this… once you’re ready from your rehab lets do it at the same time. I mean v-diet is going to be a piece of cake after ACL surgery![/quote]
Sounds good to me… I’ll let you know how my progress is coming and when I can begin… Stitches come out tomorrow…
Had my surgery on wednesday. Allograft. Doctor said it was a good outcome; he trimmed a bit of meniscus off the lateral side. The day before surgery, there was freezing rain, and immediately after my last PT session before surgery I went outside and slipped on the ice and my knee gave out. Terrible pain there but the doctor said it was ok to go in and operate as planned because it wouldn’t have time to stiffen up. So I don’t know if the meniscus tear came originally or during the second fall. In the end though the doctor said he was very pleased with the result, that my knee was tight, and that I should heal relatively quickly.
The first night after the surgery I had no pain at all. I was on percocet and had a femoral nerve block. Then at around 3am my nerve block wore off and the pain set in. I spent the second day in agony, never sleeping for more than an hour. This morning though, the pain has decidedly less edge to it and I’ve been able to go for 5 hours now before re-upping on the percocet -_-
I’m going to try today to some quad sets and leg raises, but we will see how it goes. I haven’t looked below the bandages yet, but I have been icing it periodically with the cryo cuff. I left that thing on the first night for like 2 hours when I dozed off during a drug-induced nap and woke up freezing cold. The quadricep was shivering up a storm and it hurt like hell. So it’s been held to a 30 minute on 60 minute off thing when I’m not sleeping.
Damn! I can’t believe the bad luck with the fall. One of the pluses of the surgery though is that you get your knee cleaned up. I remember after my last surgery my repaired knee eventually felt better than my ‘normal’ knee.
I wish I had an allograft, my hammie is giving me fits. Turns out only one of the two hamstring muscles is activated. The one they took a piece out of isn’t working yet, so I keep straining the other one as its overloaded.
crx or igne, are either of you getting the sweats really bad? I was changing shirts 3x per night for about 10 days? My doc said it had something to do with the blood, my pt said it had something to do with the percocet…
crx - are you off crutches yet? What about weight loss, this surgery was an awesome diet for me… I might even write my own book, the ACL-diet. You started your PT yet? My favourite part is the first time they put you on the bike and you get so, so close to a full cycle but just can’t quite make it over the top.
Tomorrow is my one-month anniversary. My PT said 4-6 weeks is the threshold for having enough tissue repair for them to pronounce the knee as ‘stable’.
The good news, now that my knee is stable I don’t need as much medical help and I can start my move to NYC (new job). I postponed moving down as long as possible so I could enjoy our nice free health care system up here in Canada 
[quote]dboy wrote:
crx or igne, are either of you getting the sweats really bad? I was changing shirts 3x per night for about 10 days? My doc said it had something to do with the blood, my pt said it had something to do with the percocet…
crx - are you off crutches yet? What about weight loss, this surgery was an awesome diet for me… I might even write my own book, the ACL-diet. You started your PT yet? My favourite part is the first time they put you on the bike and you get so, so close to a full cycle but just can’t quite make it over the top.[/quote]
I stopped taking percocet two days after surgery and I haven’t been sweating at night so maybe that’s what’s got you sweating…
I haven’t weighted myself on the same scale that I used before surgery… So I won’t find out exactly how much I’ve lost until Tuesday… I’ve been walking/limping around today… I had tried a couple other times but, today was alot less pain and more movement… Maybe that’s cuz I got my stitches out yesterday, I dunno…
Speaking of my stitches, I guess they hadn’t healed completely because I’m bleeding a little bit… PT doesn’t start until Wednesday for me but I’m gonna get back in the gym on Tuesday so I might try to get on the bike and see what I can do… Upperbody starts Tuesday… Once I can get to lifting weights with my legs we can start that V-Diet… I can’t wait…
It’s 3 days after surgery and I have been able to go with only one percocet today, but will likely re-up in order to get some sleep tonight. I haven’t had problems with sweating, but I have severe problems sleeping. I feel this inexorable desire to stretch my leg after getting 2-3 hours of sleep and just cannot get comfortable. I was able to do some quad sets, leg raises, and mobility exercises last night and this afternoon.
My quad doesn’t seem too shut down, but as you might expect, my mobility is horrible. I can hardly get my knee to bend 80-90 degrees. The docs told me not to go on ibuprofen because it can cause bleeding problems, but I want to get on that and off the percocet asap, at least until I can get back into the gym. I’m thinking about crutching into the gym on my campus a week after the surgery for my upper-body acl-tear lifting routine, and we all know that ibuprofen cuts down protein synthesis -_-
I was deadlifting 365lbs, and got 385 off the floor but couldnt lock it out as soon as last Monday, so I feel like my hamstrings and glutes have been pretty active and strong since the surgery. Of course I had the allograft, so I wouldn’t have that hamstring shut down that you talk about. It sounds annoying to say the least. I have some pain at the back of my knee near the calf and ham insertions and also anteriorly on the tibia, but it is probably a combination of the arthroscopic wounds and the general prodding.
I have been able to put a bit of my weight on the leg with the immobilizer on; I climbed the stairs last night to sleep in a bed with the help of my knee. I got off the crutches when I initially tore my acl relatively quickly and I really hope to get off them asap now. Using crutches to get up and down campus to attend classes is going to be a bitch if I can’t get rid of at least one of them in the next 10 days or so.
Here is a pic of my legs on Saturday after Wednesday morning surgery. Two arthroscopic holes on either side of my kneecap along with a larger porthole for the incoming ligament material.
Here are the legs from the opposite angle. You can see the swelling around the kneecap and the lack of muscle tone on the left leg.
My opinion, you’ll probably be off crutches before 10 days. The docs seem to say 10-14 days, but sport medicine specialists seem to say 4-6 days. My only problem was when trying to walk any real distance the leg muscles got quite fatigued.
I got off crutches after first tearing my acl in like 5 days, but that is obviously a different situation. I crutched to classes today. The trip was about 1.5 miles round trip and my elbows/arm pits are killing me tonight. For some reason it was like 75 degrees out today (mid atlantic) so I was sweating a waterfall from my forehead by the time i got to the building. I need to get off crutches soon.
I took percocet last night for sleep but only took tylenol this morning and made it all the way through the day on the two tylenol capsules I took at 10am. The pain hasn’t been that bad, just a dull ache. It is quite uncomfortable though to sit in chairs for any length of time.
Luckily my 3 hour seminar today was cut short due to its being the first day of class. I’m not sure I would have made it through 6 hours of sitting in desks today. When I don’t have the immobilizer on though, I can comfortably bend my knee and sit for awhile, so movement is coming along bit by bit. I think my quad activation is getting pretty good, but I don’t really have an absolute measure at this point in time.
I’m hoping to get a decent night’s sleep tonight for the first time since Wednesday.
I’m back to work this morning and hating every bit of it… I am becoming so restless sitting in this chair and I’ve only been here for an hour… I’ll go lift during my lunch break and see if I can knock off some of this edge I have… I’ll also weight myself and see what the “ACL diet” has done to me… I was 193 lbs. and in need of dropping about 20 lbs…
I went from 193 lbs. to 181 lbs… I actually don’t believe I’ve lost that much but, I guess I am what the scale says I am… If I did lose that much, it had to be mostly muscle…
I did an upperbody workout a friend of mine showed me… 25, 20, 15, 12 reps as I increased weight… Chest, bi’s and tri’s… I meant to see what I could do on the bike but I forgot… Physical therapy starts tomorrow so we’ll see what they have me do…
I’m feeling pretty light-headed today and extremely restless… I’m trying to get more water in me, maybe I’m not hydrated enough…
I have been getting terribly restless when I sleep and when I sit in chairs during a lecture.
Very unrestful night. I kept waking up every 60-90 minutes with a very “hot” knee that ached something terrible. I am back in the dormitory beds with no place to stretch out my arms so its difficult to comfortable. I ended up having to get out of bed to ice my knee then going back to sleep. 3-4 times.
Did you guys sleep with your immobilizer on or off after surgery? I was sleeping with it on for the first 5 days, but last night I took it off in the middle of the night and just kept my knee wrapped in ACE bandages. I’m not sure what is best. It feels like my knee moves around more when I’m not in the immobilizer and gets kind of inflamed/angry. But if I’m in the immobilizer I still get very uncomfortable, i.e. blood flow problems, restless legs, hot knee.
My doctor didn’t have me in an immobilizer after surgery… I had an ACE bandage for the first 3-4 days then I took that off and had nothing…
As far as sleep goes, my sleep hasn’t gotten any better last night I went to bed around 1030 woke up at 12 then at 2 then at 3… I couldnt go back to sleep after that… And I feel horrible right now at work… I will probably take the next 2 days off and possibly more depending on how my sleep changes… If I can’t get sleep I can’t function at work…
First day of PT they showed me some stretching exercises and put me on a machine called Game Ready (http://www.gameready.com/products/knee.htm)… Also underneath that they hooked up some electric muscle shocking thing… It wasn’t bad at all… My knee is swollen… Right knee was a 36 or 38 and my left knee is still swollen to about 41… As far as range of motion my right knee goes from 0-138 degrees and my left knee measured from 10-99 degrees… So I got some work to do but I’m ready and can’t wait for this whole thing to be over with… Next PT session, Friday…