I figure among the over 35 set there’s probably some experience with knee issues.
My knee’s been bothering me lately - nothing intense, but I think it’s a little swollen and it doesn’t love going through the full range of motion. So, I figure a little rest and a lot of glucosomine is in order. I think I can figure out my strength training for the next couple of weeks, but I’m not sure what to do for cardio.
What I have been doing is mostly treadmill running, rowing and some stationary bike. The rowing definitely puts me through a range of motion that’s uncomfortable at the moment and my knees have never really liked biking. Oddly, the running doesn’t hurt my knees, but common sense tells me that running on a hurt knee just isn’t smart.
My new gym has pretty much every cardio machine known to man, but I’m not sure which ones will give me the best cardio workout while putting the least strain on my knees. I should be able to get in some swimming, but probably not enough for that to be my sole form of cardio.
I’m not 35 yet and won’t be for a few years, but I walk on an incline as my cardio. At over 260lbs, running just makes my knees hurt (I have had a serious injury in the past not related to weight lifting).
I think running (except for sprints) is the most injury prone and catabolic activity you can engage in. It also doesn’t mean much unless running for long distances is a goal. Use the elliptical machine and walk on an incline.
If a 10% slope on the treadmill at over 3mph doesn’t raise your heart rate at all…go faster.
Because I work and train at home I have taken to getting up early and walking just to get out of the house. I started on the first of October and was enjoying it. On my walks I discovered an apartment complex with a beautiful swimming pool and a small gym. So, a couple of days ago I decide to use the gym. I get on this high tech treadmill and after figuring out how to use it have some fun. I step off of the thing and my left knee feels wobbly. The next morning pain! From a treadmill!
I doubt you will screw up your knee on a treadmill, but damned if I didn’t.
I’ll start walking again when my knee feels good enough to squat.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
I’m not 35 yet and won’t be for a few years, but I walk on an incline as my cardio. At over 260lbs, running just makes my knees hurt (I have had a serious injury in the past not related to weight lifting).
I think running (except for sprints) is the most injury prone and catabolic activity you can engage in. It also doesn’t mean much unless running for long distances is a goal. Use the elliptical machine and walk on an incline.
If a 10% slope on the treadmill at over 3mph doesn’t raise your heart rate at all…go faster.[/quote]
Thanks. That’s a really good idea - I used to do incline work and then forgot about it when I started running.
I don’t do steady state running (except occasionally to change up my program), I usually do HIIT of a minute high / a minute low, repeat until you think you’ll fall off the treadmill on the next rep.
The elliptical’s good too - I got kind of burned out on it, 'cause that’s all I used to do when I started working out, but now would be a good time to make myself get back to it.
Your post is also helpful because it’s reminded me that when I row I do tend to do that at a fairly constant pace for long periods and that’s probably somewhat catabolic, too. Given that my current goal is to build LBM, I should probably rethink that.
why dont you try skipping rope
for 15-20 minutes then walk 4 miles
under 1 hour? since it’s not as hard
on the knees and you get do that and maybe your knee will heal and feel
better.
[quote]supermick wrote:
swimming, walking, walking on a treadmill,rowing on a C2, dragging a sled for time irrelevant of weight on the sled. [/quote]
The sled is an excellent choice. You can achieve any desired heartrate by adjusting the weight on the sled.
Squat thrusts are also good if you are looking for high intensity. You can add an explosive jump as you stand up (called a burpee) if your knees can tolerate it.
I’m 48, have had both knees operated on, both are bone on bone from years of football and rugby. I used to love to run and sprint for my conditioning.
My doctor does the surgery for a professional football team. His advice was to cut out all impact exercise and do elliptical, walking, and pulling of the sled. I’ve followed his advice and my knees feel very good. I have occasional stiffness; however, nothing occasional aspirin doesn’t take care of. Take care of those knees. You only have one set. Best to you.
[quote]bartonmlee wrote:
why dont you try skipping rope
for 15-20 minutes then walk 4 miles
under 1 hour? since it’s not as hard
on the knees and you get do that and maybe your knee will heal and feel
better. [/quote]
I agree. I have a bad knee and jumping rope does not bother it.
I jump on carpet on my garage floor and have no problems.
[quote]Sons of Thunder wrote:
I’m 48, have had both knees operated on, both are bone on bone from years of football and rugby. I used to love to run and sprint for my conditioning.
My doctor does the surgery for a professional football team. His advice was to cut out all impact exercise and do elliptical, walking, and pulling of the sled. I’ve followed his advice and my knees feel very good. I have occasional stiffness; however, nothing occasional aspirin doesn’t take care of. Take care of those knees. You only have one set. Best to you.[/quote]
Agreed. I consider the knees and shoulders the joints most prone to injury in the human body. Precautions should be taken to maintain them. That is why I hate that running is recommended so often when it is one of the most common overuse injury prone activities.
[quote]!vic wrote:
supermick wrote:
swimming, walking, walking on a treadmill,rowing on a C2, dragging a sled for time irrelevant of weight on the sled.
The sled is an excellent choice. You can achieve any desired heartrate by adjusting the weight on the sled.
Squat thrusts are also good if you are looking for high intensity. You can add an explosive jump as you stand up (called a burpee) if your knees can tolerate it. [/quote]
Good ideas. The squat thrusts will work as long as I remember that for once I’m not trying to go all the way down.
Rowing has exacerbated the problem - I find that I pull myself all the way forward until the seat hits the footrests. when my knees are ok, this range of motion is perfectly comfortable. But when they’re not, it’s not.
I don’t have a sled or a convenient place to store one, but I suppose I could borrow my nephews and their wagon and drag that around on the grass. You don’t find the digging in to pull hurts your knees?
As a matter of nomenclature, I thought burpees were: start in a plank position, hop your knees in towards your chest (so your hands and feet are close together on the floor) and then jump up. Repeat until you puke. Not so?
[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
bartonmlee wrote:
why dont you try skipping rope
for 15-20 minutes then walk 4 miles
under 1 hour? since it’s not as hard
on the knees and you get do that and maybe your knee will heal and feel
better.
I agree. I have a bad knee and jumping rope does not bother it.
I jump on carpet on my garage floor and have no problems.[/quote]
This is true and something I’d forgotten. People think jumping rope will pound the knees, but in my experience it really doesn’t.
Carpet though - doesn’t the drag make it harder to get a rhythm going?
[quote]Sons of Thunder wrote:
I’m 48, have had both knees operated on, both are bone on bone from years of football and rugby. I used to love to run and sprint for my conditioning.
My doctor does the surgery for a professional football team. His advice was to cut out all impact exercise and do elliptical, walking, and pulling of the sled. I’ve followed his advice and my knees feel very good. I have occasional stiffness; however, nothing occasional aspirin doesn’t take care of. Take care of those knees. You only have one set. Best to you.[/quote]
You’re right. Especially when people tell stories that knee replacements are so painful that if patients don’t have them both done at the same time, they won’t go back to have the second one done. Good motivation to keep the original issue equipment in working order.
I was worried about the sled pulling, but if someone who has worse knees than mine is doing it w/o a problem it’ll probably work for me. Besides, my nephews will love it.
burpee = stand up right, squat kick legs back, press up, bring legs up, jump, repeat.
As for rowing its alwayd good to get the technique right first. This goes for everything (lifting weights, sex - whatever) - if your technique sucks your problems will get worse as you try to add weight/go harder. Put the damper on 3-4 and try that.
Loads of bodyweight gpp drills but make sure your warmed up right. Id recommend some joint mobility drills - you know the kind of stuff you used to do before rugby or football practice - arm circles, knee circles, squatting slowly etc etc.
Ive yet to give sled pulling a try myself but saw jouko ahola (the guy in my avatar) improvise by flipping a pallet upside down, placing a tyre on it and putting a large atlas stone in the tyre. Anything goes really.
For the record, rowing is not as catabolic as running. Rowing athletes carry more muscle mass than other endurance athletes due to the nature of the sport. Speed in rowing is more the product of stroke power than stroke speed. The pause between muscular contractions is longer, allowing greater recovery. Also, rowing is not weight-bearing, so it’s my theory that the body does not try drop weight in order to make the movement more efficient.
It’s one of the only endurance sports I can think of where the heavy weight generally puts up better numbers than the lightweight. A 200lb rower can be a monster, but you’ll never see a competitive 200lb distance runner.
I’m 59, six foot, 200 pounds (give or take a biscuit), and around 12% BF. Like Prof X, I do cardio on the treadmill.
Have had knee problems since Vietnam, and do not have a meniscus in the right knee. Both knees have bone spurs. The treadmill does not exacerbate the knee problems. However, I do not run on the treadmill either. Perform 20 and 40 minute sessions, and make adjustments in 5 or 10 minute increments, depending on the length of the session. Always begin with the angle at 7 degrees, then to 9, followed by 12, and then to 15 degrees. When the angle is adjusted, the tempo is increased. I begin at 3.4 mph, then to 3.6, followed by 3.8, and then the last increment is at 4 mph. Sometimes I adjust the tempo upwards sooner, as I want the BPM to be at approximately 120 ASAP (this is a good fat burning level for an old man - haha).
Also, and this is important, to protect the knees, I never go below parallel on squats. Because of the chronic damage to the knees, to go below parallel places me at too great a risk of injury. And, it has taken up to three weeks to fully recover. Thus, I do light reps with BB squats (225), and for heavier reps use the Hack Squat machine (695).
[quote]marza wrote:
Zap Branigan wrote:
bartonmlee wrote:
why dont you try skipping rope
for 15-20 minutes then walk 4 miles
under 1 hour? since it’s not as hard
on the knees and you get do that and maybe your knee will heal and feel
better.
I agree. I have a bad knee and jumping rope does not bother it.
I jump on carpet on my garage floor and have no problems.
This is true and something I’d forgotten. People think jumping rope will pound the knees, but in my experience it really doesn’t.
Carpet though - doesn’t the drag make it harder to get a rhythm going?[/quote]
Doesn’t seem to slow down my leather rope.
I am considering getting some rubber mats but I cannot seem to find the time to go to a feed store and I will not pay sporting goods store pricing.
I ended using the elliptical machine, Spin and now RPM. If you have the settings correctly done on the stationary bike, it should not impact your knee and cause pain or discomfort. The real daddy of them all is the Stair Climber.
I hate to run, thanks to Uncle Sam. For PT we used to run through the woods in Ft. Bragg and it sucked. It was much better on the knees than running on pavement though. I don’t think the human body was made to run on cement or black top roads for that matter.
What about the recumbant bike? I love that thing. Easy on the knees, allows you to read or play games, and you can go balls to the wall if you crank the resistance up. You can get in a good 30 - 45 minute session, or you can beat yourself up in 15 minutes if you need to.
