How to start working out Again after a knee injury in North Vancouver
Context is everything. The answer really depends on what structure or structures have been compromised and what type, intensity, and volume of exercise the individual planning to return to.
Some knee injuries may only require a few days to a week of active recovery before working out can resume, while other injuries may result in several weeks of relative rest.
For most types of injuries however, general movement should be encouraged, and lower-grade exercise can and should start soon following injury, with certain caveats.
Some ways in which I try to get patients back to exercise after a knee injury may include:
Water-based activity: this could be pool running, shallow water lunging/squats, hopping movements, etc., or swimming/kicking. All these options take a considerable amount of stress off the knee due to the buoyancy the water provides.
Modifying exercise load: this includes modifying the sets, reps, weight, and tempo of exercises the patient already knows to regulate how much cumulative load the knee is exposed to, with the intent of progressing these variables through the course of their recovery. For aerobic exercise such as running, the patient can adopt a run-walk training program where the walk intervals gradually decrease as the run intervals gradually increase (i.e. walk-8-minutes, run-2-minutes for 30 minutes, progressing to a walk-7-minutes, run-3-minutes for 30 minutes, etc.).
Modifying exercises: some injuries may not allow for full knee range of motion due to swelling in the joint or some other reason. Some exercises can be modified so that the knee isn’t subjected to ranges of motion that might be aggravating (i.e. quarter or half depth squat vs full depth squat). If an exercise can’t be regressed into an easier version of itself, then a different exercise may be recommended that is challenging but achievable with wherever the patient is in their recovery.
Movement in many forms can move the needle on your recovery in a favorable way, so don’t underestimate the power of movement outside the context of structured exercise. However, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to recovery timelines within and between different types of knee injuries. The practitioners at Mountain Health and Performance are proficient in managing musculoskeletal injuries of knee and can help you navigate your return to exercise.
Dr. Matt Wentzell
BKin, MSc, DC, FRCCSS(C)
North Vancouver Sport Chiropractor
