Cycling & gammy knee

[vickster]

Long story, cut short...damaged left knee in bike accident 18 months ago, lateral damage, 2 arthroscopic surgeries (Feb & Dec 2010), partial menisectomy, articular cartilage damage to femur and tibia (on the weightbearing surfaces of the bones unfortunately) and also patella (this has been tidied up).

I am keen to get cycling again and ride as much as possible from March to September - commuting to work, around 4 miles each way. There may be a need for further, more gruesome surgery to align bones but don't want to mess up the cycling so won't do anything until the autumn (if ever!)

I am building up my legs on the static bike (doing around 3 x 5k a day), I can only manage fairly low resistance (around 10-20% max) and I know I going to struggle with any sort of hill out on the road.
Bike wise - I have both a Specialized Crosstrail and a new Sirrus which I haven't ridden yet - saving it for the dry days when speed is a bit more desirable. Both in XL so my legs are never overbent when pedal at the top, and I am also quite upright which makes me feel less vulnerable. I have had a few short rides since the second op, but it is rather wet and chilly for me generally!

Any tips for strengthening / getting ready for the road - I realise that my commute isn't long by some standards. I would also like to do some longer weekend rides. I have a bunch of very dull physio exercises to do - I *should* do these everyday. I am also able to leg press pathetic weights at the gym and use the crosstrainer for say 10 minutes before the discomfort really sets in! Rower and treadmill a no no (at least for now).

Any others of you equally knee impaired and how do you manage. My knee is stiff and a bit swollen all the time - just looking for ways that won't exacerbate the pain!

Cheers in advance

 

[mallrat666]

Hi vickster I had keyhole on my left knee back in April '09. I played football a lot, and was told to cut back on it, even stop playing!

I had to do all sort's of exercises to get the strength back up while on crutches for a month after op – after I was given the ok I started on a bike, just a little bit each day, nothing too hard. Then when I felt ready I tried running again on grass only.

Then when I was confident (around Nov ‘’09) I started football again, on the grass was fine, but once I got onto the astro turf, I got problems again, I was pushing myself too much and after training on the astro turf the next day my knee was in so much pain. So I stopped all together and felt really down because I love my football and just wanted to get back to playing, but that just wasn’t gonna happen.

I then gained a load of weight (was well over 14s tone). I moved back to my hometown, and got back on the bike again. Starting off doing 6 miles a day (not pushing it) and after a while then knee was feeling great, guess I just need to give it a long rest, then just build up the strength again – I’m now doing between 12 – 25 miles 6 days a week and loving it. And have signed on for a team again. The knee feels great now, I can play and it doesn’t bother me and I can jump on the bike the next day with out a worry.

Your knee sounds a lot worse than mine. But what I’m trying to say is, a little at a time and just keep it going at what you feel is comfortable for you and your knee, it will feel great again.

Hope all goes well for you. And as I’ve found out rest is good.

I’m sure there are much better people on here that can give you advice, as they’ve given me.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Sorry to hear about this knee problems are bad news. I had a high tibial knee osteotomy near the end of March 2010. It was a horrible operation, and as it was my first op I was possibly a bit of a puff regarding the unbearable pain. My operation involved filling in a chip off my knee joint Femur face (result of a childhood accident) with synthetic plugs, they usually take a bone graft but the hole was too big. Then they break the tibia and realign the leg putting the weight onto the good side of the joint. The tibia is held in place with a large titanium plate and screws. If you’re possible bone re-alignment is this operation? Try to avoid it unless necessary, as it’s horrible. My recovery has taken longer because I firstly got an infection and I do not think I pushed myself enough with exercise. I have been doing a bit of cycling but not enough. I also packed in physio as I thought I was gaining very little from it. However my consultant recently recommended that I go back and take more. I have done this and as such changed my physiotherapist and she is very good. I have been told to go to the gym to build up my leg muscles, shame as I detest gym’s. I went for the first time last night and it was murder, I could hardly lift 10KG doing leg extensions with both legs, I could not fully straighten my legs as the weight was too much. I think I now realise how weedy I am that I really need to push myself as I am going to get nowhere. I put in quite a lot of miles on a turbo trainer. It may be boring, but it is probably safer than being on the road and you can choose how hard you push yourself. I also have to really concentrate on pushing with my bad leg, as it is easy to use the good leg most of the time. Your operation was obviously much sooner, but you need a decent physio to advise you how to proceed. If you’re joint allows you really need to push yourself, as how quickly the main thigh muscles waste through inactivity is frightening, mine is weedy as hell. Do not let how little you can manage at the gym, I was a little conscious of this at first as the place was full of people whom were able to lift vast amounts, but in the end I thought stuff it, I need to get these muscles built up. When you are saying *should* be doing boring exercises, I really believe you must really put yourself out to do them. I didn’t and as such the recovery has been really, really slow which I now believe is down to my lack of motivation/laziness. Good luck by the way, I am sure you will get there in the end.

 

[doodles]

I had arthroscopy and meniscectomy plus lateral release of the tendons on both my knees at the same time.

This was on 2nd November 2010 so almost 3 months ago now.

Having both knees done at the same time was a bit of trial. Walking, stairs, getting in and out of a chair and going to the loo was difficult to say the least.

I was off work until 5th January but am now back on light duties (i'm a police officer) doing paperwork.

I am now just about walking around ok but doing stairs especially coming down is still difficult.

I started back doing turbo trainer work for 15 mins at a time with very little resistance when i started back to work and the progressed up to 45 mins over the last few weeks.
This week I have been out on the road twice, doing 18 miles each time, takes me about 1hr 15mins and have been ok.
I can't get out of the saddle and have to remain seated and just tickle the pedals on the hilly bits but so far so good.

I have been told I may have to have the tibial tubular transfer if the pain doesn't fully subside, and this will involve removal of bone from the tibia below the knee cap and re-alignment, I really don't want to go down that road if at all possible and up to now the recovery seems slow but fingers crossed is going ok.

 

[montage]

I had a lateral release done on both knees at the same time at the start of July 2010. Recovary went quickly, but then seemed to plateau off, leaving me unable to cycle much. I cycles here and there and kept at the physio exercises - though these reduced as I upped the cycling. To cut a long boring story short, I started to see far better improvements when I got rid of the policey of "don't push the knees too hard" and took up the policey of "push the bastards harder!". I'm now training at least 5 times a week with the odd run thrown in. Yes I still get some pains, but these are getting better and better daily. Sports which twist my knee are a big no no unfortunately, but perhaps that will come with time.

Best of luck with all your recovaries

 

[vickster]

Good to hear you chaps with knee issues are back in the saddle. I had a ride yesterday - very windy! I managed one of my favoured local circuits, leaving out the steeper slopes. Around 6.6 miles in 33 minutes - including traffic lights and a slow careful ride down a busy high street. OK a bit poor by most standards on here, but I am still only 7 weeks out from the arthroscopy. Legs tired, sore around the left VMO (I think it's that muscle) but not too awful. The last half a mile on the flat but into a major headwind was completed at around 9mph!

Felt good. Cannot wait to get out on my new Specialized Sirrus, sticking to the Crosstrail right now

My left leg is still rather weak - very wobbly if I try to balance on it! I need to do more of that dull strengthening PT stuff at home and in the gym in addition to the 15-20k of static cycling I am trying to do daily

To Cheesney Hawks - Sorry to hear about your HTO experience My surgeon is talking about a distal femoral osteotomy - which I believe it like an HTO but for a valgus malalignment (they saw through the femur rather than tibia ! I am going to leave it for 6 months at least however, it didn't sound any less hideous on the second explanation!

All the best all