Torn Medial Meniscus - Need some advice...

Well, I just found out that I have a torn medial meniscus in my right knee. It had been bothering me for a few months after playing a game of tackle football and then the other day it started killing me to the point of not being able to straighten my leg after doing some heavy leg curls. Anyways, I will probably have to get surgery, I don?t know whether they are going to remove the torn cartilage or repair it, but either way it definitely messes up my training. I need some advice though as to what to do while it is injured/recovering. Should I continue to work out my left leg, which is my smaller but not really weaker leg? If so, should I just do enough to maintain or what? Any exercises I can do for my right quads to maintain that won?t interfere with my recovery? I should still be able to do some light stiff-legged deadlifts and goodmornings for my hamstrings. At the risk of looking gay I assume I can really take time to strengthen my adductors and abductors since that wont require me to bend my knee at all (im trying to find positive ways to look at this otherwise depressing situation). Another thing I wanted your opinion on is leg curl and leg extension machines. I have heard in the past that they aren?t very functional and that they might do more harm than good. While my injury occurred after using the leg curl machine I still like to keep an open mind about it taking into perspective that my knee was already injured a little bit and that if it had been otherwise healthy it most likely would not have occurred. Considering only 10% of my leg training is done on machines and the other 90% consists of squats, cleans, deadlifts, goodmornings, and stuff like that, the fact that the injury occurred on a machine makes me a little hesitant to want to use them anymore though. How many of you guys include these machines into your leg training and would I really be missing out if I did stop using them in the future? I would really like to hear what you guys (and girls) think about this and if you have any advice on my injury that would be great too. Thanks and stay healthy. - Nic

Hi, i tore my medial meniscus a few years ago and had surgery to have the torn part removed, i had actually lived with it for 2 before finally getting it seen to. It is a common procedure apparently, and i was training again a few weeks after the op, only problems i have had since is that the back of my knee gets very tight sometimes. I would recommend avoiding full range movemts around the knee joint as for me personally these would occasionally leave me unable to strighten my leg properly for a few days afterwards, this did however subside and i would be ok again soon after.

Thanks for the reply Herby. i will take it easy on the full range movements for a while. hopefully i will be able to get back to full squats and cleans eventually.