Recovery and Exercising with a Lower Limb Injury or post Surgery

 I found out in January that I needed surgery on my right knee for a small tear in my meniscus. Nothing spectacular happened to cause it, probably just a lifetime of exercising (and I wouldn't change a thing just to avoid wear and tear on one of my knees!!!) I don't know how common it is to exercise regularly for 40 years and not have some part of your body wear out but I suspect it's pretty common :)

So I had the surgery on the 6th March and everything has gone really well and I was walking pain free immediately after my surgery :) 

Anyway onto modifying my workouts, staying sane, maintaining my strength and fitness as much as possible!

Rehab Exercises

I had my surgery via my Axa healthcare so I am grateful to have physiotherapy every 2 weeks until I am back doing everything I need to. I make my rehab the first thing I do to start the day and I follow the physio prescription 100%. I don't skip days unless it's not sensible to do it (because it's painful) but thankfully I haven't needed to miss a day so far.

Upper Body Strength Workouts

I do some strength work for my upper body every other day so I don't get really tight/sore/injured. It's easy to get carried away and think I can't work my lower body hard so I'll hammer my upper body, that usually results in either a lot of soreness or an injury, neither are ideal as you recover!

I have programmed a mixture of exercises and rotate them 1 Upper Body Exercise and 1 Core Exercise and repeat that for around 45 minutes. When my energy felt good I would add in 10 minutes of specific core strength exercises so that when I returned to fully weight bearing with weight my core would still be nice and strong. 

Then I do some upper body mobility exercises with bands and use the Theragun on my upper and lower body. 

The next day will be either a light spin on my indoor bike (I started at 30 mins after two weeks and built up nice and slowly to 1 hour) or get my 10,000 steps.

Some of the exercises I was able to do:

All seated DB exercises (initially) now I can stand and do the exercises but with a slightly lighter weight than before my surgery

Pull Ups, using a bar I have at home (also very good for attaching bands to vary your exercises!)

DB Floor Chest Press & DB Pullovers

DB Standing Row and DB Deadlift (after two weeks I added in these)

Elevated Press Ups (I used a bannister and lifted my operated leg off the floor)

Weighted Overhead Sit Ups

Lying Leg Raises

Inchworms

KB Russian Twist

I used heavy resistance bands to do things like Double Arm Pull Downs, Single Arm Pull Downs, Lat Pull Down, Bicep Curls, Tricep Pushdowns, Chest Press. 3 sets of 30 repetitions with the right amount of tension will feel like a good workout.

Cardio

I built a make shift ski erg by attaching 2 light resistance bands to my pull up bar and that gave me a great upper body and core workout and out of breath! I also have swim bands which I have actually grown to love through our many lockdowns :) and  cycling on my indoor bike when that was allowed.

Walking

I have built back up slowly to 10,000 steps from about 3,000 the day after my surgery. Walking is the most underrated form of exercise, not only do we really need to get out in nature in lockdown, it's a great way to build back a little leg strength and see progress as you get back to doing the amount you were before.

My knee did not like me sitting for long periods of time so getting my steps in was a great way to prevent that stiffness becoming an issue.

Nutrition

I am eating at least 120g protein every day (chicken/fish for lunch, yogurt in the afternoon and top up with a milk/protein shake in the evening if necessary or a protein bar), 1/2 plate of vegetables with every meal. Always a good excuse for a bacon sandwich for breakfast!

Your body needs good quality protein regularly even if you haven't had surgery or are injured so it's more important now to aid your recovery.

Don't scrimp on calories, your body is healing itself so depriving it of vital nutrients is not going to yield the best and quickest recovery. Also, you will feel more tired, you will sleep better if you are not hungry and you need a lot of good quality sleep to recover from surgery in particular.

Avoid alcohol, it is does not aid recovery, maybe save that for when you are back to 100% and celebrate a speedy recovery. Enjoy some chocolate/cake or whatever you fancy occasionally, you do not have to eat like a monk to recover well.

Sleep & Naps

I love sleep and 9 hours is pretty normal for me to feel and perform well :) I slept well the night of my surgery thankfully but I did also need naps pretty much every day for the first week. Embrace it, allow your body time more time to repair and rebuild.

Hydration

Thankfully I am a fan of water and drink at least 2 litres a day even if I'm not very active. If you are not a fan, add some cordial to make it taste better. Drink nice teas and have coffee up to the point in the day when it might affect your sleep.

Supplements

Vitamin D (which I take all year round as I live in the UK!) , Vitamin C, Omega 3 (2,000mg)  (again I take this all year round) it was recommended to me by my Sports Med Doctor.

My physiotherapist did not recommend supplements like glucosamine or chondroitin as he said there still isn't enough evidence that it is going to make a difference. I guess in time that might change.

Additional

I have a Theragun and have been using that to keep my legs flushed out and avoid any stiffness building in my knee from having to sit a lot initially.

As an alternative you could use a nice massage cream and give the muscles around your knee a massage every day after your physio exercises.

I hope that is helpful and if you have any questions, please just get in touch and if you are reading this post surgery good luck with your rehabilitation. If you are reading this injured, have hope and do everything you can to recover as quickly as you can. Make sure you have a good therapist helping you x