Saber Forum

I injured my knee and will need surgery and can't work on foot work so what excersizes would be best for upper body? For saber wielding.

Everything is connected. Push ups, pull ups, core, arms/shoulders

You might want to just sit out and relax for a while; let your body heal.

Well I don't want to let my upper body go but no stress to my legs is all I plan for.

Sorry to hear it. What did you do?

 The best advice you have gotten is to just rest.  It would be a very risky thing to try to workout your arms and shoulders and not your legs. Your upper body is connected and dependant on your lower body. You would be trading a bad knee for a bad knee, weak legs, bad back, and an out of balance body.

NEVER lift weights while sitting down. Nautilus machines are torture devices.

Just take it easy. Push ups, planks, crawls and that such should be fine, but follow your program. The quicker it heals the faster you get back up and about.

Also, not to mention,  depending on how long it takes your leg to recover, your upper body won't just "go". It takes a bit for something to just "go". As long as you let your body heal correctly, and then get back into action, you won't have many, if any, adverse effects of stopping for a bit. Letting yourself go usually happens when you stop for a very long, extended amount of time (you know, over a month in the smallest cases).

As Master Nonymous stated, everything is connected. I'll give a great example: I play tennis. I have injured myself many times playing tennis, especially in the arms and legs. ESPECIALLY THE LEGS. Oh by the gods if I could tell you the amount of times I have injured my legs playing tennis the list would be enough to wrap around this planet six times or so. Pulled muscles, sprains, etc.....all of which have caused me to literally be unable to do anything to work up my upper body until I let myself recover. The legs are sort of a foundation, you know. Without them you can't really do much unless you are gifted with a wheelchair or something, and even then you still can't really do anything.

So just sit back, relax, and let your body heal. You can pick up where you left off after your body has repaired itself.

There's nothing I can say here that hasn't already been said.  Just rest and recover.

I see well to answer your question I bent my leg sideways where the knee ended up pointing left and tore some ligements the miniscuss and the nerve I basically got ruined there. Worst part which is the best part too I didn't feel pain the nerve being severed that quickly saw to that but now I can't feel how I walk if that makes sense. So I'm having surgery I have no clue when just have to wait and see. Ill try to rest I'm just always so get up and go I hate to rest. Haha. Thanks for your advice everyone.

Funny. My computer is running very slowly, and I had time to think about when I injured my knee. It was actually my thigh, right above my knee and next to the artery. Let's just say, don't ever practice with decorative weapons. I had a locked up knee for a week and a half.

You could try to do those couch push-ups. Lift some light dumbells while watching TV. or heavy, your choice.
I hope you recover well. Being immobilized truly sucks.

That's a pretty serious nerve tear if you can't feel anything, especially since the main branches off the sciatic nerve that make your lower leg/foot muscles work go through the knee area. Does your foot on the injured side drag?

I would not want to risk further damage by doing any kind of workout. Lifting anything of significant weight wouldn't be a good idea, nor would (obviously) any movement that would make you articulate that bad knee, voluntarily or involuntarily. Take a break, watch some movies, play some games, etc. After the surgery your knee will be put in a brace/cast - give it time to heal, don't put any sort of stress on it.

1. A tearing a nerve is a serious condition. You should not attempt to do anything strenuous until it heals sufficiently. It's not just one nerve that goes through places and you don't know where the nerve was torn.
2. Which ligaments were torn and what degree of sprain is it? Level 3 is complete rupture. the ligaments can also detach, so that will make a difference.
3. DO NOT attempt ANY exercise until your doctor clears you for it. Do not focus on your upper body because that is probably what caused the injury in the first place. If you are over powered in the upper body this is the type of injury that can result. It happens all the time.

Rest up. When you get fixed up, you may want to change how you are doing things and focus on your lower body far more.

Okay yeah. Definitely do not do anything, and listen well to Master Nonymous. That's a pretty intense and serious injury...

I stayed away from this at first since I didn't agree with earlier postings.

Now that we're all on the same page make sure you follow the advice given so far. Rest. Rest. Rest. Heal to fight another day. The only exercise you're allowed to do it picking up the remote or a book.

Heal well,
MAV

Lol yep, I sprained my knee, granted not this bad, but as much as I hated it, I just sat on my butt as long as possible, even used crutches though I could walk without them. The easier you take it, the faster you heal. The doctor should give you pretty detailed instructions on when you can start doing your physical therapy to strengthen that knee back up.

I was a complete subluxation of my patella and tore my main miniscuss the medial and lateral are fine as far as that goes but are being over worked I can only stand 75/25 on my legs. He says best thing to do is rest ice and notify my work about surgery and how long ill be out apparently he says 3 months of PT because once the scar tissue is gone and then have me do home excersizes.

Hmmmm, I am not understanding this.

You dislocated your kneecap? And what do you mean by "main meniscus"? You have only two, medial and lateral. Do you mean ligaments? Either way, you should not be on it.

This is what my PT said

Heal.
Follow the pt's orders.
Nothing else matters other than ensuring that you heal properly.

3 months sounds about right. Maybe longer, if they didn't give you crutches grab a pair... if you can get a knee brace as well that wouldn't hurt. The less you do on it the better.

My dad is a PT for sports medicine and he is cracking down on my rest and what to do.

I've done some pretty nasty things to my knee.

I can't agree more than what the TPLA guys have said: total rest and recuperation.  The good news is it sounds like your own father knows how to help, the more assistance the better. 

I wanted my knee back as quickly as I could, and for very serious and life-altering reasons.  Everyone said my recovery was fast given the damage.  And it was.  My mistake was pushing it so fast.  I was good following recovery for about three years, almost felt "like new" lol as some guys say.  Then the worst happened, I missed a deck of stairs in rough seas, blew it out again, and guess what?  started all over and in worse condition than to begin with.  Now I have no choice but to take it slow.

When I got hurt the second time, I went for 100% recovery.  Now in that, it's not 100% like I was before the injury, it's 100% of what I'm able to do after the injury.  Whereas before I tried to get right back to where I was like nothing ever happened... that caused the damage I'm dealing with now!  I'm 60% disabled, needless to say, I'm not my 110% anymore like I was beforehand.  But I am my 110 that I can be now. 

I'm not going to lie, it's going to be a long, long three months.  You're going to want to do stuff that you know you shouldn't, or want to do stuff that the docs say you shouldn't and yet you think you can.  Best advice - follow their orders and don't do stuff.  It took me 6 months before I could do a single leg squat of my own body with my knee.  But I did one.  And for everyone involved that was a huge victory because in the beginning they weren't sure if I'd walk again.

Stay positive, stay strong in your heart and mind.  The rest can heal given time.

also, you have us.  Not going to lie.  We've either been there ourselves, or know friends that have.  It's part and parcel to leading an active life.  We're here for you, so if it starts bugging you, and you get the itch to want to do something maybe stupid, come on here and hit us up.  We're here for you.

good luck on a speedy and safe recovery,

MTFBWY
GrumpyBadger