Hi everyone, thank you all for the awesome forum community here.
I quit smoking about 5 months ago now
Gearing up for that, about 1 year ago I began portion control and lost about 20 lbs. After quitting smoking I lost maybe another 5-7 lbs. I'm now 5'6" 130 lbs. I decided I'd ramp up my workout routine, from 2 x / week to like about 6 or 7 x / week when I quit, 5 months ago, to prevent what happened last time I tried, and failed - BIG weight gain really fast - like 25 lbs in 1 month, it was BAD, and ultimately led me back to the damn habit.
Anyway my workouts started out as basically ellipitical, low to medium intensity for 20-25 mins daily, plus weights daily, but rotating different body parts so I wasn't working same body parts daily. About 3 weeks in (so we're talkin about 5 months ago) I started to develop knee pain, so I switched to using that 'arm bicycle' machine, but then I developed some shoulder pain.
I laid off of the gym completely for two weeks, still didn't get better, then went to an orthopedist about the knee, he diagnosed runner's knee (aka patellofemoral pain syndrome) and suggested arch supports and several sets of stretches. The knee got a little bit better with those, but the pain never really ceased. The shoulder got worse though, so I had to stop bench and most weights in fact. The orthopedist diagnosed bicipital tendonitis and injected the shoulder, which didn't help at all. Gave me some stretches for it too. So, 3 months later with moderate improvement in knee and minimal improvement in shoulder, I went to see a DO rehab doctor who agreed with the diagnoses and recommended PT.
I went to PT about 5 times, it really helped for the knee, the therapist was great. Shoulder didn't improve much. Up till this point I'd been doing very minimal resistance walking and ellipitical, and minimal weights but cut out things like bench obviously. Therapist recommended exercise bike rather than ellipitical, so I did that, knee continued to improve, he recommended increasing the resistance, which I did, but my lower back started to bother me. He then recommended treadmill and stepper to put less strain on lower back. Also recommended knee extensions and curls to start strengthening medial quads. He also recommended lat pull downs, arm raises with light weights, very light bicep curls to keep the shoulder from atrophying since I wasn't doing all the much with it, the pain was still moderate.
After trying the stepper once, as he said, for like 5 minutes, my knee hurt a lot, so I lay off of it. Then that physical therapist left from my center, so I have a new therapist now who's not as good.
She had me do exercise bike when i went back to PT, and after that, my knee's been back basically to how it was towards the beginning. I lay off of it again for about 10 days, NSAIDs daily, and an intense, daily, stretching routine, which is like PAGES long now lol. It consists of what the orthopedist gave me initially, which was then added onto over time by a couple exercises each session by the therapist. I'd been doing a few sets of stretching on a daily basis up till now, but I ramped it up to like exactly how the directions say, which is like 5-10 sets of each stretch, plus the strengthening exercises the PT recommended, which I'd been following exactly already anyway. They are mostly hip, IT band, hamstring stretches, and then shoulder stretches, and some leg / low back strengthening. Then, from a site I found, I'm doing a 'reduce pain and soreness' routine which involves some flexibility training, I avoid anything that stresses the knee or shoulder too much. These damn stretches are pretty extensive though, they take seriously almost an hour to do, so I barely have much time to do anything else lol. Here's a pic of them, just to give you an idea Picasa Web Albums - sedrate - Stretches
Here are my questions if anyone can be of any help:
- Any tips on reducing the amount of stretches I'm doing? I'm not sure if THIS amount is really necessary or even helping, and the therapist hasn't been helpful in re-evaluating them. Plus, my insurance isn't approving any more PT yet
- Would it be alright to re-introduce some cardio back into my routine somehow? Its tough to find much thats totally pain free with knee and shoulder pain, but I dunno, maybe uphill walking at a good pace on a treadmill? I basically just want to burn calories to maintain my lean weight from quitting smoking and just doing stretches is probably not burning very many calories and sure doesn't feel like much of a workout
These damn problems are really not MAJOR compared to what could have happened so I do consider myself lucky, but they have been going on for quite some time now without much consistent improvement, so any guidance would be great. I got into this more intense workout routine being a bit inexperienced so I appreciate anybody's help in educating me. Thanks!
I quit smoking about 5 months ago now
Gearing up for that, about 1 year ago I began portion control and lost about 20 lbs. After quitting smoking I lost maybe another 5-7 lbs. I'm now 5'6" 130 lbs. I decided I'd ramp up my workout routine, from 2 x / week to like about 6 or 7 x / week when I quit, 5 months ago, to prevent what happened last time I tried, and failed - BIG weight gain really fast - like 25 lbs in 1 month, it was BAD, and ultimately led me back to the damn habit.Anyway my workouts started out as basically ellipitical, low to medium intensity for 20-25 mins daily, plus weights daily, but rotating different body parts so I wasn't working same body parts daily. About 3 weeks in (so we're talkin about 5 months ago) I started to develop knee pain, so I switched to using that 'arm bicycle' machine, but then I developed some shoulder pain.
I laid off of the gym completely for two weeks, still didn't get better, then went to an orthopedist about the knee, he diagnosed runner's knee (aka patellofemoral pain syndrome) and suggested arch supports and several sets of stretches. The knee got a little bit better with those, but the pain never really ceased. The shoulder got worse though, so I had to stop bench and most weights in fact. The orthopedist diagnosed bicipital tendonitis and injected the shoulder, which didn't help at all. Gave me some stretches for it too. So, 3 months later with moderate improvement in knee and minimal improvement in shoulder, I went to see a DO rehab doctor who agreed with the diagnoses and recommended PT.
I went to PT about 5 times, it really helped for the knee, the therapist was great. Shoulder didn't improve much. Up till this point I'd been doing very minimal resistance walking and ellipitical, and minimal weights but cut out things like bench obviously. Therapist recommended exercise bike rather than ellipitical, so I did that, knee continued to improve, he recommended increasing the resistance, which I did, but my lower back started to bother me. He then recommended treadmill and stepper to put less strain on lower back. Also recommended knee extensions and curls to start strengthening medial quads. He also recommended lat pull downs, arm raises with light weights, very light bicep curls to keep the shoulder from atrophying since I wasn't doing all the much with it, the pain was still moderate.
After trying the stepper once, as he said, for like 5 minutes, my knee hurt a lot, so I lay off of it. Then that physical therapist left from my center, so I have a new therapist now who's not as good.
She had me do exercise bike when i went back to PT, and after that, my knee's been back basically to how it was towards the beginning. I lay off of it again for about 10 days, NSAIDs daily, and an intense, daily, stretching routine, which is like PAGES long now lol. It consists of what the orthopedist gave me initially, which was then added onto over time by a couple exercises each session by the therapist. I'd been doing a few sets of stretching on a daily basis up till now, but I ramped it up to like exactly how the directions say, which is like 5-10 sets of each stretch, plus the strengthening exercises the PT recommended, which I'd been following exactly already anyway. They are mostly hip, IT band, hamstring stretches, and then shoulder stretches, and some leg / low back strengthening. Then, from a site I found, I'm doing a 'reduce pain and soreness' routine which involves some flexibility training, I avoid anything that stresses the knee or shoulder too much. These damn stretches are pretty extensive though, they take seriously almost an hour to do, so I barely have much time to do anything else lol. Here's a pic of them, just to give you an idea Picasa Web Albums - sedrate - Stretches
Here are my questions if anyone can be of any help:
- Any tips on reducing the amount of stretches I'm doing? I'm not sure if THIS amount is really necessary or even helping, and the therapist hasn't been helpful in re-evaluating them. Plus, my insurance isn't approving any more PT yet
- Would it be alright to re-introduce some cardio back into my routine somehow? Its tough to find much thats totally pain free with knee and shoulder pain, but I dunno, maybe uphill walking at a good pace on a treadmill? I basically just want to burn calories to maintain my lean weight from quitting smoking and just doing stretches is probably not burning very many calories and sure doesn't feel like much of a workout
These damn problems are really not MAJOR compared to what could have happened so I do consider myself lucky, but they have been going on for quite some time now without much consistent improvement, so any guidance would be great. I got into this more intense workout routine being a bit inexperienced so I appreciate anybody's help in educating me. Thanks!