Exercises after keyhole surgery on the knee for a torn cartliage?

Around 4-5 years ago i has a torn cartliage in the knee & it was shaved down. No real problems with it since, just on & off minor discomfort really.

After years of being a "Gym? hell no!!" person i joined up last September & love it.
Recently upped the weights when i've been working my legs & afterwards i get quite bad twinges in the knee that i had surgery on.
Happens the most after i've hit the leg press machine really as that's the one i've really upped the weights significantly (for me, not by your standards lol) on.


Should i ease up totally? If so then i guess i'll never be able to work past a certain weight.

What specific exercises would be perfect to strengthen this part of the leg?

Thanks.

Start doing some isolation work to strengthen the area as well as proper stretching. (Leg extensions, one leg at a time)

[QUOTE=Kev_83;316951461]Around 4-5 years ago i has a torn cartliage in the knee & it was shaved down. No real problems with it since, just on & off minor discomfort really.

After years of being a "Gym? hell no!!" person i joined up last September & love it.
Recently upped the weights when i've been working my legs & afterwards i get quite bad twinges in the knee that i had surgery on.
Happens the most after i've hit the leg press machine really as that's the one i've really upped the weights significantly (for me, not by your standards lol) on.


Should i ease up totally? If so then i guess i'll never be able to work past a certain weight.

What specific exercises would be perfect to strengthen this part of the leg?

Thanks.[/QUOTE]

I've had the same surgery dude, TWICE. And then one more operation to help rebuild a muscle or something, basically my left leg has less muscle then my right one and I'm stuck with some metal in there too.

My leg routine is: squats, lunges, and then I use machines for the back of the leg and lower leg. I do lunges because I find it's a great exercise to help the supporting muscles aswell especially after 3 surgeries. I didn't go through with all of my physio so I'm still scared that my knee is able to mess up again and it feels like it can too in certain positions which is why I don't play any mojor sports anymore like soccer etc...

i know for me, right now i have a torn MCL, torn ACL, and torn meniscus all in my left knee. It was torn about 5 years ago and I never got it repaired.

Once and a while it does bother me, so i either skip legs if thats what i am due for that day, or go really light.

Be careful man

Still learning the ropes etc i tend to stick with the machines really. Our gym is really quite small....

2x treadmills, 2x step machines, 2x bikes, 2x rowing machines
1x leg press machine, 1x bench press machine, 1x lat pull down machine, 1x pec dec, 1x leg extension machine, 1xfunny leg machine that not many people use lol, 1x multi purpose machine that mainly does arms

so you can see how quickly the gym packs out. It has a very small free-weights section (as in, it'll be busy with 2 people in there, but sometimes people ram it & it gets crammed with about 4-8 people)

Anyway, for the most part, my leg has been fine. Slight twinges in winter, but i was able to play football (soccer) again no problem.
Only really started to get REAL twinges since i upped weights. I think i was doing something like 125-135kg on the leg press machine, which wont be a lot for many on here, but we all have to start somewhere & i could really feel it in my knee afterwards. I did legs yesterday & can still feel it today in the knee, but the actual muscles aren't too bad at all.



Not looking to injure myself again, considering i'm carrying what the orthopedic consultant is calling a "rare case" injury to the fibula. If it's still tweaking tomorrow then i'll go light.

Dude, avoid the leg press. It's been causing trouble. Ice if there's any pain and avoid anything that aggravates it.

If the hamstrings are significant weaker than your quads it's easier to put a lot of stress on the cartilage and ligaments of your knee especially when bending.

See if you can airsquat (then add weight) or do lunges instead.

Make sure your muscles are all loose... probe around and see if anything is tight that needs to be massaged.

strengthen your vmo( inside of the quad) then you whole knee will begin to feel better, an you can continue to lift heavy
do leg exstensions with your toe pointing outwards an single leg legpress with you foot positioned low on the plate and right to the side to isolate the vmo.