<p>If you can walk up and down stairs without a twinge I suggest you are ready to exercise that knee! :D</p>
<p>Stairs really bothered me until I went to a physical therapist who showed me safe exercises to do. Many of them were variations on leg lifts. Boring but effective in strengthening the muscles around the knee so THEY do the work, not your knee joint.</p>
<p>You should check of course with your doctor, before you start anything…but thought I would mention that my husband had a knee scope on Monday with the removal of some meniscus and confirmation of some preliminary bone bruising that may be early signs of arthritis. The doc recommended the first choice of exercise he should start (he said as early as today!) was some slow minutes of recumbent bike. Would that be something that might work for you Minnesota???</p>
<p>I have used the recumbent bike for years and had to stop because of the swelling and pain. I guess I wasn’t clear. I had been exercising faithfully but always in pain so I recently stopped. I have tried to start back with biking or walking and as soon as I do the swelling and pain comes right back.</p>
<p>You may have been very clear - I may just not have the best memory!!!</p>
<p>So you’re looking for exercise other than biking or walking at the moment? And swimming doesn’t feel like enough?</p>
<p>I know how you feel - my knee is getting better and better and I can do stairs and most other things without being as careful now.</p>
<p>Aerobic stuff to consider: elliptical, bicycle, rowing - basically low-impact stuff.</p>
<p>You can do the fitness stuff too which is more geared to strength-training. You can probably look at the exercise and see whether or not is stressful to your knee. You can do things like pushups, dips, pullups, military press, chest press, tricep press, abs exercises - and the fitness/interval variants. Create a notebook (paper or electronic) with a warehouse of exercises that you can do that are easy on the knee. You can grab them from YouTube and do some video editing to string them into a program or just write down a list of exercises to do on a given day.</p>
<p>The surgeon says just don’t do anything that causes pain and swelling. Biking, walking and water exercise all cause swelling and pain. I am stumped with what to do! :(</p>
<p>cross posted with BC…Thanks. I think weights is going to have to suffice. Can’t do elliptical either. I wonder about rowing??? Will give that a try.</p>
<p>You probably do this already but checking to see that you make a habit of icing the knee immediately after exercise to ward off swelling???</p>
<p>NMinn, I’m going to echo what others have said. Has it been a while since you’ve seen the specialist? It sounds like it may be time to go back. There may be more work that needs to be done in there. After that end of it’s been taken care of, the PT. The PT can help you with exercises that are safe and help increase your range of motion. For the meanwhile, keep working on the diet end of it to help ease pressure. Hoping you’re able to swim and bike and walk comfortably again soon, NMinn!</p>
<p>NMinn- Would light setting on an elliptical bother it now? Goal would be to elevate heart rate without undo pressure on knees.</p>
<p>I just want to say I am proud of two things -
Crazy work day, couldn’t work out in the morning - but did elliptical and mild running from 8:30 pm - 10 pm last night.</p>
<p>Then was up at 3:15 am finishing a client deliverable for a 6:30 am phone call - finished at 5:15, so went to fitness center, did my C25K and was back at my desk by 6:15.</p>
<p>Good job, pizzagirl. I would be asleep at my desk by now if I were you!</p>
<p>Easy 3 miles this morning to try to recover some more for tomorrow’s Senior Olympics 10K. Then I get a break from racing until…July 4!</p>
<p>I was up until around 1:30 working on the FBAR and up around 6:30 AM to talk to my wife about the stuff in the FBAR. I have to get her signature and then mail it in. My workout efforts have been hampered by helping our daughter with her job search and looking at universities to get her four-year-degree and various financial things that I’ve had to take care of. The injury was actually timely for dealing with a lot of stuff. I have a ton of paperwork at home to process too. I sometimes need to take a day or three off to clean off my desk at home.</p>
<p>NorthMinn, what about a stairmaster (not the step mill) on level 1? Stand up straight and do smooth , easy movements using your glutes rather than your knees to power your legs. You can also do various arm exercises while on it. Another option are hand bikes. Though quite boring.</p>
<p>NMINN:</p>
<p>Well, that isn’t good news at all. I know it’s got to be so frustrating to go thru knee surgery and end up still not being able to do what you want without knee pain. Look on the bright side, though… at least this means that you can’t do burpees!</p>
<p>Many, but not all, of the functional strength training exercises I do would be pretty easy on the knees. The main exceptions would be the jumping stuff and perhaps squats and lunges. Everything else should be OK, including a bunch of stuff that will give you a heck of a cardio workout – like kettlebell swings.</p>
<p>You’ll figure out some stuff that may not be ideal, but that will get the job done.</p>
<p>3.4 mi treadmill run</p>
<p>So like many of you, we have been stuck in this hot, humid mode (yeah, I know it’s summer 
) Every evening storms roll in. One came through about 7:30 and when it stopped, I thought - hey head out for a run now cause it will be a little cooler, right?! Not right! Hot. sticky. 153% humidity! Ugh. But got a couple miles in anyway - where did those 70 degree running days go??!!</p>
<p>In between storms here it was still drizzling a little, but I got DH and S to join me on a short walk. It was surprisingly cool but yes, humid. Towards the end there was thunder & lightning in the distance but we made it home. :)</p>
<p>To the basement for the second workout of Phase 3. Whew, these are tough. I wasn’t expecting this one to be quite so challenging, but I ended up having to go back to the rack for lighter DBs on a couple of exercises.</p>
<p>Did a core exercise that was fantastic! Does look that hard, but, wow, this one fires the abs like crazy. You can do it with ValSlides, feet in the TRX, or just on your toes rocking back and forth flexing the ankles.</p>
<p>[ValSlide</a> Body saws](<a href=“Bodysaw - YouTube”>Bodysaw - YouTube)</p>
<p>The “power” exercise was lunge, scissors kick jump to the opposite lunge:</p>
<p>[Lunge</a> Jumps or Split Jumps - YouTube](<a href=“Lunge Jumps or Split Jumps - YouTube”>Lunge Jumps or Split Jumps - YouTube)</p>
<p>Holy mackerel. 16 of those (8 per leg) will get the ol’ (formerly) fat guy heart rate up!</p>
<p>And, a new diabolical version of the dreaded box step ups:</p>
<p>[crossover</a> step up - YouTube](<a href=“crossover step up by angie taylor - YouTube”>crossover step up by angie taylor - YouTube)</p>
<p>Crossover step to a 16 inch bench. I did these with 2 x 20 lb DBs. Not too bad, except that 12 per leg is LOT. I think my hips/glutes are going to be sore as it works the hips like crazy.</p>
<p>Among other things, this one had chinups as one of the exercises. I hadn’t done one for about two months (since I started this program), so I was happy to do 4.5 in each of three sets.</p>
<p>Finisher was 20 KB swings on the minute every minute for three minutes. Doesn’t sound that bad, except that it’s at the end of a hard workout. I did them with the 35 pound KB. Glad I didn’t try the 50lb big one.</p>
<p>Good luck with the Olympics tomorrow, MOWC!</p>
<p>Here’s a powerful and emotional 16 minutes on obesity:</p>
<p>[Peter</a> Attia at TEDMED 2013 - YouTube](<a href=“Is the "obesity crisis" just a disguise for a deeper problem? - YouTube”>Is the "obesity crisis" just a disguise for a deeper problem? - YouTube)</p>