Coming off ACL surgery, need advice

[heywood]

Hey, since it's my first post I won't need to tell everyone I'm a noob. Thanks in advance for not snickering too much at my stupid/naive comments.

I am coming off reconstructive knee surgery and am finally starting to hit the gym again for the first time in 4-5 years. Blew it out 3 years ago and finally got it fixed in January.

So far I'm taking the USP line (AP/ReCreate/PFull/Cissus) and whey/creatine. I am planning to buy some bulk stuff from NP and could use some advice as to the best value for products since I'm an apprentice in the trades and I've been out of work for more than 2 months now.

Just to make sure nobody thinks I don't eat right I've been working on my diet to extract all the white flour and high-gi foods out of it before I get to go back to work. My main issue there has been a long history of drinking coffee all day and not eating enough when I'm not working.:crackhead:

As for the gym, I'm still in the first month or so of workouts post-surgery so I'm still sore all the time (gotta love doms). I'm getting about 4 days per week and don't need much extra cardio since I ride my bike to the gym (hate gym cardio and always have). I was excited as hell tonight that I got to do squats for the first time since surgery and had no pain! I live for leg days.

Anyways, sorry for the wordy first post but my goals are mainly get back to feeling like an athlete again (used to squat 3 plates at 17yo) and not some broke-down 29-year old.

 

[imenraged]

Looks like you got everything except a good BCAA.

 

[pvtpARTS]

Hey, since it's my first post I won't need to tell everyone I'm a noob. Thanks in advance for not snickering too much at my stupid/naive comments.

I am coming off reconstructive knee surgery and am finally starting to hit the gym again for the first time in 4-5 years. Blew it out 3 years ago and finally got it fixed in January.

So far I'm taking the USP line (AP/ReCreate/PFull/Cissus) and whey/creatine. I am planning to buy some bulk stuff from NP and could use some advice as to the best value for products since I'm an apprentice in the trades and I've been out of work for more than 2 months now.

Just to make sure nobody thinks I don't eat right I've been working on my diet to extract all the white flour and high-gi foods out of it before I get to go back to work. My main issue there has been a long history of drinking coffee all day and not eating enough when I'm not working.:crackhead:

As for the gym, I'm still in the first month or so of workouts post-surgery so I'm still sore all the time (gotta love doms). I'm getting about 4 days per week and don't need much extra cardio since I ride my bike to the gym (hate gym cardio and always have). I was excited as hell tonight that I got to do squats for the first time since surgery and had no pain! I live for leg days.

Anyways, sorry for the wordy first post but my goals are mainly get back to feeling like an athlete again (used to squat 3 plates at 17yo) and not some broke-down 29-year old.

Hey bro I feel your pain about the knee, I royally f'd mine up in a freak camping accident about 4 yrs ago... Had the same surgery that a lotta NFLers have when they blow out their knees ( Daunte Culpepper, Terrell Davis, etc. ) I'd never thought i'd be able to any leg work at all, but i started out slow with some light hack squats and light leg presses and when the muscle came back i started squattin. It's funny that my right leg ( the one that got f'd up ) is just a bit smaller than my left, i can see it in the teardrops.. Just take it slow and warm up really well with some stretchin and maybe a lite jog on an elliptical, those are real easy on the knees by the way. The best advice i ever got was from 50 some yr old female bb whos said, " The best thing to do is to imagine it never happened and just concentrate on the muscle your working " . Sorry if this is a little long but your situation sounded just like mine and wanted to provide some encouragement. Eventually that knee should adapt to the regular exercise and it WILL heal, it just takes time. Good luck!:type:

 

[heywood]

Thanks for the support guys. Sorry about your knee, pvt...hurting the knee wasn't nearly as painful as surgery recovery that's for sure. Guess we should all pray for stem-cell research lol.

Last night I did some squats and it felt good but my stepdad freaked out on me saying that I could really mess up my knee doing that. I'm half one way and half the other, I feel that if I use impeccable form and low weight I will be helping my knee more by letting the muscle stabilize it. I def didn't feel any pain from the knee last night, and the leg pump is something I live for (still can't manage to pump up my upper body besides back, not sure why)

imenraged, I have a plan to buy bcaa's, thanks for the advice...what's your take on eaa's and any other bulk options at np that might be a good idea (besides bulk supercissus, maybe bulk pslin if ap becomes too expensive to do all the time) I plan on capping whatever I have to anyways. I'm still a little clueless as to exactly when to space out pre-wo/post-wo and recovery window for rebuilding but I'll keep looking on the forum for my answer.

Anybody that has any input is welcome, I can use the help.

 

[pvtpARTS]

I would recommend real gains for a good gainer if you want to add some size and torrent for pwo crea, just my .02

 

[nightshift]

Take your time with the knee. I have had 3 surgeries on mine and a gradual build up of strength and endurance will be your best bet for long term post-op success. Listen to what your body is telling you. It will let you know if you are pushing to hard to fast. Good luck and welcome aboard

 

[at1010]

hey man im 18 year old kid who blew his knee out so i feel your pain and just stick with the leg workouts and youll be ok....just gotta build up that thigh muscle again and get it to fire out just like it used to....good luck

 

[heywood]

Yeah, I agree with both you guys on taking it slow. I have mainly just been using leg lifts as an add-on for muscle gain and the biking to help move the toxins out of the leg. However, I have noticed that working my legs hard with low weight (taking myself into lactic-acid land) is helping grow my left quad pretty well. I still give myself doms but with the bike riding I can flush the lactic acid out of the body quicker.

As for size pvt, I don't plan on getting any bigger for the moment since it would be bad for my knee and I'm around 15% bf right now (fatass!) so I have plenty of mass to recomp. This is kind of like bb-bootcamp, as I was always good at the workout portion but starved my muscles too much and never really knew how to supplement properly.

Lately my favorite leg lifts (besides squats, which I'm gonna have to take it easy on) have been:
RDL's
bosu squats (around 60 per set)
leg press (careful with mechanics and little to no extra weight besides the machine)
walking db lunges (so far 25 lb)

would like to add smith machine hack squats (low weight) to pound the rectus femorus, are there any other exercises that you guys suggest? I haven't been in the gym much for a while so my repertoire is maybe a bit on the limited side from what it used to be.

sorry for the wordy post, and please if you think of anything please let me know

 

[natty texan]

feel your pain.

blew my knee out a year and half ago.

Now i'm training to get back on a college f-ball team. great first post.

 

[heywood]

thanks natty,
man, my heart goes out to you trying to play football after knee surgery good luck!

myself, I used to ski all winter and can't wait to get back to that...

 

[natty texan]

thanks natty,
man, my heart goes out to you trying to play football after knee surgery good luck!

myself, I used to ski all winter and can't wait to get back to that...

haha i bet.

hey you may want to look into a joint health supplement.

the two bigs that i know about are osteosport and animal flex.

i'm taking flex right now and i love it. I'm squatting with no pain at all.

 

[heywood]

to anyone who knows who he is,

RIP Shane McConkey

I'm kinda in shell shock, he was such a stud...left behind a wife & daughter.

 

[heywood]

natty, how long have you been out of surgery?

thx for the rep!

 

[heywood]

change in plans with this mutha

bump on this just to say that I'm gonna make this fool into a log.

I know I might be the only poster to it, but I wanna have a record of coming off acl surgery here...maybe somebody can get something from it and I'm def. open to input, as I'm a long time out of the gym prior to this.

So far in 1 month I've been great at gaining weight and hurting myself; I'm up to 200 but the same 15% bf :rant: There's a lot of variables at stake here; not the least being my diet, lack of going to work every day and putting on leg mass after a major leg surgery. Sunday, was doing seated cable rows and felt a pop in the lower back and have been strugglin' since. Didn't stop me from doing chest & bi's with some cardio tonight, tho. :fing02:

Thanks, everyone who contributed to this thread; I'm on a mission! I can feel it comin' on, gonna get in the car and drive until I get where I wanna be then keep going. :dl:

 

[natty texan]

good to see man.


i'm trying to find some vid's of stretches for you now...

 

[natty texan]

YouTube - DeFrancosTraining.com - Piriformis myofacial release

 

[natty texan]

YouTube - DeFrancosTraining.com - sample mobility drills

 

[natty texan]

YouTube - DeFrancosGym.com - Joe DeFranco's Upper body warm-up routine

 

[natty texan]

not really a stretch but i can't wait to try this

YouTube - DeFrancosTraining.com - Towel shrugs

 

[natty texan]

YouTube - Jocks need Yoga too!

 

[natty texan]

YouTube - Knee Pain Exercises & Stretches : Optimal Knee Pain Recovery Program

 

[natty texan]

thanks for the rep man.


i'm glad you're making this a log. I'll definitely be keepin up with it.