#ellipticalforlife
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Anyone have a recommended recovery routine for coming back from fucking up a knee? Forgot to consider I wasn’t in my 20’s anymore, and my knee paid for it. Not badly, not permanently, but I have had to skip leg day for two weeks because of it.
Couch 2 5K sounds perfect for you. It’s a training plan that assumes very little at the beginning and is set up around alternating waling and running, gradually extending the length of the runs until it’s a straight 5K.
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Thanks dude, I’ll check it out.
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Yeah, but treadmills that can fit a bike on comfortably and safely are a pain in the ass to find, and expensive as hell.
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That’s a real thing! https://www.cycleops.com/
They’re a lot cheaper than a treadmill that isn’t made out of balsa wood and spit too.
Yes, but also not really a treadmill, and doesn’t have the bonus of evoking the image of someone trying to ride a bike on a regular treadmill.
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During the work week, I walk as much as I can, and now I have a Planet Fitness membership, so I do that on the weekends, along with hopefully more walking. I can do about 30 minutes on the elliptical while watching something on my Fire tablet before my legs feel like garbage, so that’s what I do for now. I’m hoping to build up more over time. I recommend you do this before you become diabetic, unlike me.
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It took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize that was a pun on cyclops.
Here’s what I did when coming back from an injury. Set a distance (say 4km). The first time, figure out what your comfortable speed is (even just above a walk is fine) and maintain it for that distance. Let’s say its 9km/h. Once you’ve got that down, the next time you run, halfway through, boost the treadmill up a notch (say jump to 9.1km/h once you hit 2km). The next time, do a boost at 1/3 and 2/3 through your run (so in the hypothetical, you’d be finishing at 9.2km/h). Every time you run, cut the interval between speed boosts, so that your final speed becomes faster and faster. Once the intervals are short (say 200m), start increasing your starting speed, or increasing the size of your speed jump at the intervals.
Some other tips:
- Running is more of a breathing exercise than anything else. That’s what you should be focusing on when you run.
- When you inevitably get a stitch, I find it helps to tense and release the muscles around the stitch repeatedly.
(Apologies for the metric units).
I’ve been working on recovering from knee surgery over the last year. Here are some things I’ve been doing:
- Squatting with bench with plates stacked on it under my butt. I squatted down until my butt hit the plates. Once I reached a good working weight at one height, I took away a plate and started again from a lower weight.
- Deadlifting, with blocks. Similar to the squatting, I did deadlifts but set the weight on blocks so I was not moving my knee too much. Again, once I reached a good weight, I lowered the blocks and repeated starting from a lower weight.
- Kettle bell swings and farmer’s carrys. They’re a good way to wear yourself out without stressing your knee.
- Low resistance cycling, or just cycling somewhere super flat - good for getting everything moving again.
I hope your knee improves soon. Having a bung knee sucks.
I did 55 minutes on the elliptical on Sunday. I think I can push myself harder than I have, but it definitely wears me out. I was tired the rest of the day, but I feel like I’m making progress.
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Find a speed that you can run for 20 minutes at. If that speed seems low, don’t sweat it. If it’s a brisk walk and not a run, so what? Find the pace, do it for 20 minutes, and note how many miles that ends up being.
Once you find that pace, try to do it every other day (or so). Do it until you don’t feel like it’s even a workout.
Once this is comfortable for you, do one of these two things every week. Just one of them: not both.
- Increase the speed by 0.2mph
- Increase the time by 3min
You will be shocked after a few months at how much better your cardio is.
If you’re doing intervals, that’s awesome. Most people can’t handle them and give up. Keep doing those once a week (in lieu of one of these other types of runs).
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I’ve been doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu for a couple of years now. It’s a great workout and I don’t get bored with it like I do with more traditional gym workouts like treadmill, weights, etc. It’s also fun to think that I’m learning a useful skill in case I’m ever in a situation where my kid brags that “my dad can beat up your dad.” 
Oh, and my jiu-jitsu school also now does a weekly bootcamp workout which I’ve also been attending. Insanely intense workout, but worth it, IMHO.
I keep having problems staying in a routine, I need to start getting up early again.
This is good advice, it’ll work out for you.
Been going to a crossfit gym near my house, doing their less crazy, mostly body weight version classes. After the 2 weeks, im willing to keep going. The motivation is I dont feel like im dying now, yet the work is still tough. (Also girlfriendly encouragement)
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Agreed. A slow ramp up is much easier to stick with and you still get results.
I’m trying to actually train for half-marathon runs instead of doing them casually. I did my first real timed one yesterday. ~2 hours. I averaged a sub-9-minute pace the entire run. That’s including one awful 11:40 split where I had to walk due to… gastrointestinal disturbances. Also another awful 10:14 split where the heat got to be too much and I walked in the shade for a quarter mile.
I think I can average 8:30 splits easily if it’s a little cooler out and I carry better hydration/calorie options along the route. I’m shooting for eventually doing the whole run in 1:45, then see if I can make it to 1:30 before I’m too old.
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