Me and my new knee, Day 40

 Lot’s going on post holidays on many fronts, including with my post surgery rehab.

I began to log up to 3 miles a day in 4-5 walks towards the end of December and into January.  I began to spin on first my Wahoo Kickr/Zwift trainer and then on my recumbent.  I started a regular swim block (did 4th swim of year today) which my plan would be to build on.

I suppose, not surprisingly, my knee started complaining louder.  Sleep was a real challenge (never more than 5 hours a night).  Hard to walk first thing.  My Docs had an intervention and I just went through a 6-day stretch of minimal stress on the knee.  To be sure, I’m still doing a lot of PT (more on that in a second) and as I mentioned above, hitting the pool every other day.

I also started working with James Hashimoto “Hash”.  He has given me some pt exercises that are not so much focused on stretching as they are on recruiting and properly sequencing muscle activation so I can regain normal knee mechanics.  It’s been so long since I could straighten my knee when walking that some of my muscles deactivated due to limited use.  Because of this my tibia doesn’t glide relative to my femur in a way that allows me to strike the ground with my heel and a 180% extension of my leg.  So I have to retrain them to fire and in the right sequence.  Turns out you can do this by walking backwards.  Reach back with your toe and then roll your weight back to your heel and presto, your tibia glides and you have a straight leg.  So I walk backwards and then slowly forward to try replicate the activation sequence but in reverse.

Anyways, after sprinting out of the gates, my rehab progress has slowed quite a bit. I’m still progressing but slower than I’d like.  I think patience is required and I’m optimistic that it will be rewarded.  Just going to take a while.

My main near-term fitness goal is to walk my daughter down the aisle, without a limp, in the middle of February. 

Onwards and Upwards!