My knees got to the point where I could barely climb the stairs without wincing and limping after cardio.
Using the foam roller every other day completely solved the problem. The relief was almost immediate. Now I don’t have to limit the hated cardio to the elliptical.
[quote]Leafblighter wrote:
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. [/quote]
This is all very true- elite rowers tend to be rather tall, and carry a good deal of muscle. It’s the cardio I love to hate. Brutal, but effective. In my gym, it’s like the power rack - rarely used. Anybody who does it with some real intensity has my respect.
[quote]Skuebb wrote:
This is all very true- elite rowers tend to be rather tall, and carry a good deal of muscle. It’s the cardio I love to hate. Brutal, but effective. In my gym, it’s like the power rack - rarely used. Anybody who does it with some real intensity has my respect.
[/quote]
I love the rowing machine - I’m not fast, my best average over a half hour was 2:19/500 meters and I thought the Beta-7 helped, but, unlike other things*, I can keep going at it for a good period of time.
When my knee had some swelling, that kept me from being able to go through a comfortable range of motion, but now that’s gone down I’m able to row comfortably again.
And, even better, I finally got it together to go in my gym’s endless pool. It’s so much fun. The first day I spent a fair amount of time fiddling w/ the flow control, the whirlpool jets, etc., but today I swam for at least a half hour. Of course, I did flip over on my back and backstroked when I got tired, but the stream of water I was swimming against remained constant. So, from feeling like I didn’t have a lot of cardio options, I now have tons.
Thanks.
*other things being the bike, where a geriatric nursing home patient could outpace me.
Walking on an incline. You can even add the weighted vest. The key is to get the right incline. I use about 10-11% and walk about 3.7 miles per hour. The walking speed has little to do with the energy expenditure, it is more the incline.
You dont want to walk so fast that you burn your calves out. And at not so high an incline that you cant keep it up for at least 30 mins or so…
by far the best conditoning tool i have ever used is the prowler. i would have said the sled a year or so ago, but now i rarely use it, the prowler gives me what feels like an overal body strength and conditoning workout and sneaks cardio in there as so i dont notice it.
easy on the joints too!
[quote]marza wrote:
Skuebb wrote:
This is all very true- elite rowers tend to be rather tall, and carry a good deal of muscle. It’s the cardio I love to hate. Brutal, but effective. In my gym, it’s like the power rack - rarely used. Anybody who does it with some real intensity has my respect.
I love the rowing machine - I’m not fast, my best average over a half hour was 2:19/500 meters and I thought the Beta-7 helped, but, unlike other things*, I can keep going at it for a good period of time.
[/quote]
I just started rowing today on a Concept2. Its a nice break from swimming. I’ll do that until I get tired of the PAINFUL seats, then its back to the pool.
Trampoline, sex, or both will get your heart rate up and should be good to go on your knees
I agree that your absolute best bet is swimming. You’ll get your money’s worth of cardio, and the pool water dissipates heat and sweat as you work your way into a good session.
If you can’t do that, for whatever reason, then I recommend either a sandbag or a kettlebell. Either of those will provide you with more than enough cardio, without banging up troublesome joints.
For a sandbag, just get a duffle ($20) from the local surplus store, and bags of sand from Lowe’s or Home Depot. It is the number one best and cheapest home use tool you can get.
Shoulder it for high reps on both sides, clean it, press it, waiter lift it, squat it, curl it, pick it up and put it on a table for reps - do anything but run with it. Walking is optional, but good if your knees can take it. Excellent for grip work also!
Otherwise, a good kettlebell and a good intense regimen with that is what I’d recommend.
Now, I’m 44, and I currently have no injury or orthopedic issues - and I am planning to keep it that way if at all possible.
Marza,
I’m glad to hear you took advantage of the pools and went swimming!!! I’ve been swimming regularly (in a regular pool, not an endless pool) for nearly eight months, and love it.
My favorite bit of kit in the gym is the rowing machine too. I only added the gym on top of my swimming for about the last two months now, and I can see a huge improvement in my endurance and the strength of my strokes. I can swim about 30-45 solid minutes now, only taking time to unfog my goggles a few times, or let a stronger swimmer go first at the turn.
Funny thing is that these days, surprise of surprises, I’m finding that people are letting ME go first at the turn. All the hard work and dedication is paying off, I guess. 
Good luck with your knee.
Micki
I kickbike, it’s dorky but the best cardio after running.
Read TC’s post and scroll down till you see and read about the kickbike.
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=05-atomicdog-029
it’s a lot of fun and much harder than you think!
Try standing with your knees bent and legs a little wider than shoulder width. Start punching straight in front of you.Right.Left.Right.Left. Just stand there and punch for a few minutes. Then, to wrap it up, try doing busts of 5 punches in a row as fast as you can. This will “gas” you more than running. It’s great for the shoulders. Also, do as many kicks as you know. Example, front kick, lift your knee up torward your chest, then kick straight forward, bring your knee back to the first position, then return your foot to the ground. Kick with one leg, then the other, as you walk straight forward. These two things alone will give you more than enough cardio if you do several minutes of each. It has the added benefit of improving our coordination, balance and self defense.
I do like the sound of sex on the trampoline, but I recently purchased Chi Running. It is tough on the ego but so far I have managed probably ten aerobic runs with absolutely no pain. It is a method of running that is bio mechanically correct. The Authors theory is people injure their knees when the run incorrectly. I was skeptical at first but I am turning into a believer , One of the exercises the Author gives is to run in sand and leave no divot from heal striking or pushing off with the ball of the foot. Good Luck
Since you said that your gym pretty much got all these new pieces of equipment go and use the x-trainer or the rotex machines, these are low impact, no bouncing machines and the rotex could be even better than running if you really got a knee problem.
You have gotten some great advice on the thread about sprints instead of running, incline walking, different machines, etc., so I won’t try to add anything there. But your situation does not sound too different from where I was when I started lifting seriously 6 years ago at 40.
Through some basketball injuries in High School and College, my knees just did not like running as I got older, and full ROM was only a dream. My doctor had me start sitting on my heels. Since there was no real injury, just lack of flexibility (which lead to swelling, soreness, etc.) we gave that a try. Every night as I was going to bed and every morning as I got up I tried to sit on my heels. If I remember right it took a month before my butt actually touched my heels and it hurt like anytyhing. Now I can sit that way for as long as I need to but I still do it every night and every morning for about 30 seconds.
Since that time I have never had swollen knees again, and my Squat is doing great (I do wear sleeves on both knees).
Give it a shot - if you can sit all the way back then that is obviously not the issue.
[quote]DJHMcKinney wrote:
You have gotten some great advice on the thread about sprints instead of running, incline walking, different machines, etc., so I won’t try to add anything there. But your situation does not sound too different from where I was when I started lifting seriously 6 years ago at 40.
Through some basketball injuries in High School and College, my knees just did not like running as I got older, and full ROM was only a dream. My doctor had me start sitting on my heels. Since there was no real injury, just lack of flexibility (which lead to swelling, soreness, etc.) we gave that a try. Every night as I was going to bed and every morning as I got up I tried to sit on my heels. If I remember right it took a month before my butt actually touched my heels and it hurt like anytyhing. Now I can sit that way for as long as I need to but I still do it every night and every morning for about 30 seconds.
Since that time I have never had swollen knees again, and my Squat is doing great (I do wear sleeves on both knees).
Give it a shot - if you can sit all the way back then that is obviously not the issue.[/quote]
Thanks, that’s good advice. My problem was something different - getting into bed at night I’d gotten into the habit of putting one knee on the bed and twisting - stupid, yes. Once I realized I was doing it, I stopped and now my knee is fine.
But your suggestion about sitting Japanese style (seiza) is well timed. When I first started working out with a trainer, she was surprised that I could sit that way reasonably comfortably and rest my weight on my arms behind me - I’m not otherwise very flexible. However, I took a meditation class at my gym last week. Part of the meditation was spent in basically that position, but slightly elevated by sitting on a block. Doing that made me realize that a year’s worth of squatting and probably not enough stretching had made that much less comfortable than it used to be. I made it through about 15 minutes of the meditation, then said frack it and changed to something more comfortable. Clearly I can benefit from doing that stretch. I hadn’t thought about it helping the knees, but now that you’ve suggested it all the more reason to get back into it. Besides, I hate to be the middle-aged woman in the meditation class who can’t even sit comfortably on the floor for 20 minutes at a stretch.
I’m not sure if you lift weights, but if you do, shorten your rest periods to 30-45 seconds between sets. I haven’t done cardio in months and haven’t missed it. I WAS doing HIIT cardio on the treadmill and was at the point where I was getting up to a 5:30 mile pace on my sprints. The problem is that my knees and low back were taking a beating. Yes, the HIIT greatly improved my 3-mile run time, but since I quit running and really focused on shorter rest periods and high intensity lifting I haven’t noticed any significant loss of cardio endurance and I haven’t gained any body fat. I can still go out and get a decent 3-mile run time.
Aqua running.
Zero impact, great for tendons and very good aerobics
I walk up the side of a mountain every day. It is steep and the rocks are killer at times, but it is the best cardio I like, because it isn’t boring and my joints don’t get punished. The view at the top is the bonus. One drawback is that it is so steep that when you come down, you have to be very careful. You can seriously bust your ass.
I’ve got boogered up knees, severe damage to the articular cartilage of the femur and patella. What works great for me is swings with a kettlebell or dumbell for high reps. one handed snatches work similarly but may bother some knees.
I used KB swings to rehab both my knees post surgery.
know it’s not long steady distance types cardio that you might be looking for but it’s something to consider alongside sled drags or other intense interval type cardio that has been suggested here. If you can handle it, walking with a weighted vest uphill or up stairs is very easy on my knees. The down part sucks. Might work for you.